Pleasure Island Reopens After Dredging Completed

Baltimore County Executive Kevin Kamenetz took a boat tour of Pleasure Island Tuesday afternoon, formally announcing the completion of the $4.7 million Pleasure Island Dredging and Living Shoreline Enhancement Project.

The shoreline of Pleasure Island, part of North Point State Park, had been eroding at a rate of 1.3 feet per year prior to the project. The newly created beach area on the island—home to an amusement park in the 1940s and 1950s—consists of 52,000 cubic yards of material dredged from the nearby boating channel and 74,000 recently added wetland plants.

“Many residents use the island for boating and some for overnight camping,” said Fran Taylor, vice president of the North Point Peninsula Council. “This provided stability for Pleasure Island and also protection for Miller Island.”

Hurricane Isabel, in 2003, exasperated the natural sediment erosion.

The new “living” shoreline serves to stabilize the shoreline and prevent sediment erosion into the surrounding bay, according to a press release from Baltimore County. A 36,000-ton rock formation built along the north side of the island at Hawk Cove is designed to trap sand and keep material out of the newly dredged channel, referred to locally as “the Cut.”

“I’m not getting into the water today, at least not in my suit,” Kamenetz said, jokingly referring to his commercial earlier this year promoting Baltimore County beaches.

Candace L. Croswell, a manager at the Department of Environmental Protection and Sustainability, said that in its day, Pleasure Island attracted thousands of swimmers on summer weekends. Known as New Bay Shore Park, an amusement center sat on the formerly, privately-owned island. In 1964, a hurricane knocked out the bridge that connected Pleasure Island to Miller Island, Croswell said.

The county later bought the island from Bethlehem Steel in the late 1970s.

Today, the island is reachable only by boat, and is available for crabbing, bird watching, camping, hiking and fishing.

The $4.7 million project was managed by the Baltimore County Department of Environmental Protection and Sustainability.

The Maryland Department of the Environment applied $2.7 million in American Recovery and Reinvestment Act Program (the federal stimulus) funds toward the project.

The Maryland Department of Natural Resources’ Waterway Improvement Fund contributed $1.9 million and the Maryland Port Administration added $100,000 to the project.

“This has been a long time coming and it is very beneficial to the recreational boating industry and also helps protect the bay from damaging sediment erosion and nutrient pollution,” said County Council Chairman John Olszewski Sr.