Mattituck Inlet at Risk of Breach as Army Corps of Engineers Delays Dredging to 2026

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers recently delayed their scheduled dredging of Mattituck Inlet from October 2025 to October 2026 as Bailie Beach on the eastern side of the Inlet’s jetty remains unusable and at risk of breach.

An email sent to the Mattituck Park District (MPD) by the Army Corps of Engineers on Aug. 4 said the postponement was a result of shipyard maintenance delays and unexpected engine problems with the Corps’ multi-purpose vessel. The Inlet has not been dredged since 2014, despite — according the the MPD — the Army Corps’ own assessment that between 70,000 and 100,000 cubic yards of sand needs to be dredged every 7-10 years to prevent the western side of the jetty from becoming oversaturated with sand while the eastern side becomes depleted as sand goes through its natural migration from west to east.

“This is part of a repeating pattern of negligence and dereliction of duty, in my opinion, on the part of the Army Corps of Engineers to properly maintain the Inlet and the surrounding two properties on the west side and the east side,” Kevin Byrne, commissioner and chairman of MPD, said at the Southold Town Board meeting on Aug. 19.

Byrne and MPD Secretary Abigail Field established at the meeting that under the Army Corps’ current plan, only between 6,000 and 8,000 cubic yards of sand would be dredged next October. Now with an extra year before the dredging takes place, they would like the board’s help with getting the Army Corps and the federal government to re-evaluate the project and instead complete the project to its full necessity. However, according to the Army Corps, they do not have the authority to complete the full-scale project.

“The Army Corps last completed dredging of the inlet with placement of sand along Bailie Beach Park in 2014,” a spokesperson for the Army Corps said. “This was done as a one-time project under the Army Corps Section 111 Authority that offsets impacts associated with federal navigation projects. This authority allowed the Army Corps to dredge the channel deeper and wider ─ but only one time…The estimated volume for dredging is 6,000 cubic yards of sand from shoaled areas of the navigation channel.”

The lack of dredging has left Breakwater Beach on the western side of the inlet with a surplus of sand and Bailie Beach with none, creating dangerous conditions in respect to tidal currents and placing the Inlet in danger of breaching.

“There are now three identifying areas we know of that are in serious jeopardy of breach,” Byrne said. “If in fact that area breaches, the Mattituck Inlet as we know it will cease to exist.”

The Army Corps said that it “has not assessed” the condition of the beach or the potential for a breach.

In addition to their desire for the scope of the project to be increased, Byrne and Field spoke at the board meeting in an effort to raise public awareness of the situation and ask the board to write letters to federal elected officials to encourage them to look at the situation. They also asked for the board to provide a point person within the town with whom they could work with on strategies and exchange information and ideas with.

Southold Town Supervisor Albert J. Krupski Jr. reiterated his support for MPD and the necessary dredging at the meeting and said he will work with Trustees to make an even louder appeal for the full-scale project.