Megansett Squeteague Association, LLC

See below for MSA LLC:

History

Fundraising

Contact Info

Fundraising Efforts:

In order to move this project forward in August of 2021, the Megansett Squeteague Association committed to fundraise $200,000 to hire the engineer to survey and permit the project. As of January 2024 we had raised over $215,000. In 2025, it was advised that offshore disposal of dredge spoils would cost 1/3 the cost of upland disposal. In order to investigate offshore disposal additional testing was required and performed in June 2025. This required an additional expense and funding of $55,000. March 2026, the Army Corps agreed - based on core sampling retrieved in June 2025 - that the dredge spoils could be disposed of offshore.

If you would like to contribute to our cause, please send a check made out to:

"Megansett Squeteague Association, LLC" to MSA c/o Laura Klint at P. O. Box 156, Cataumet, MA 02534

Megansett Squeteague Association, LLC is NOT a non-profit.

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Welcome to the Website for Megansett Squeteague Association, LLC. This website was created by the Megansett Squeteague Association to provide information about dredging Megansett Inner Harbor, Current River, and Squeteague Harbor.

You can join the group by reaching out to MegansettSqueteagueAssoc@gmail.com to request to be part of the neighborhood association and if you are a member, you can return to the group by selecting this link: Megansett_Dredging - Google Groups

Outline of Falmouth Waterways as provided by the Falmouth Waterways Chairman: Falmouth Waterways Dredging Areas A Pictorial View (falmouthma.gov)

Database of information on Megansett and Squeteague Dredging:

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/13g89OuVRqT3PneYntuzQTLL5L1mj7Lb4?usp=sharing

Old History:

Based on Mass dcr input Megansett/Squeteague have had the following contracts:

Contract Nos. (year): Action Item - A pictorial summary can be seen here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1sZkZFSGnkpIfMaUVUXpkFwKtmFn3KDke/view?usp=sharing

~192 (1914): dredging Cataumet Harbor and Squeteague Pond (Harbor and Land Commissioners contract) to include Current River (60’ wide and 6’ deep at MLW)

~51 (1922): dredging of Megansett Mooring Basin to 6’ at MLW

~475 (1936): breakwater at entrance of Megansett Harbor

~532 (1938): dredging within Megansett Harbor with sluices or barriers

~1230 (1952): dredging along breakwater to 6’ MLW and stone jetty at present dinghy dock and ramp

~1899(1958): jetty installed immediately north of Megansett Beach

~1980s - group attempted to have area dredged

~Early 2000s - group attempted to have area dredged

Recent History:

~Fall 2019 - members of Megansett started to attend meetings at the Falmouth Waterways Commission to discuss work needed in our waters on a consistent basis. Members from the Squeteague area started to attend the meetings for the waterways in Squeteague.

~Feb 2020 - Falmouth Harbor Master conveyed that dredging had occurred in Megansett, but is awaiting details.

~Dec 2020 - report on Megansett and Squeteague presented to Falmouth Waterways Committee

~Dec 2020 - Concerned citizens connect with Buzzards Bay Coalition to discuss project

~Mar/Apr 2021 - Outreach to engineering firms to request bids for project

~Apr 2021 - report presented to both Falmouth and Bourne on historical dredging in the area

***Falmouth Harbormaster has penciled in a line-item in the budget to survey and permit the approach to Megansett Harbor. Partnering with Bourne since Approach is on Bourne land, approximately 50’ x 475’ with depth to -9 (width later increased to 60’ to reflect the same width as Current River and other entrances throughout Falmouth). Location noted as: https://drive.google.com/file/d/12aRn5exjJVCA1Uu9T9kzA_lHl9ZWHMYY/view?usp=sharing

~June 2021 - Cataumet neighbors requested that Squeteague be considered for future projects. Letter mailed to town of Bourne

~June 2021 - discussions of creating an association to ensure towns understand our needs

~June 2021 - Meet with engineers to present their proposals to survey and permit project

~July 2021 - Create and distribute a more detailed Request for Proposal to equalize submissions. Created location of survey work for feasibility study: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1xrtB76iOzbmO0Hs6NsAmRPxifAqZSxUr/view?usp=sharing

~August 2021 - Receipt of proposals, review, and selection.

~September 2021 - Megansett Squeteague Association formed a partnership with Buzzards Bay Coalition created to facilitate fundraising for dredging surveys and necessary permitting.

~September 2021 - Eelgrass survey field work completed - no eelgrass found

~October 2021 - Bathymetric survey field work completed

~October 2021 - Wetlands and Topographic survey field work completed

Nov/Dec 2021 - Survey Plan submitted to Army Corps and Mass (dep) to schedule core samplings of the dredge materials

~Feb 2022 - core samples pulled and submitted to lab for analysis

~May 2022 - survey of waterways to see change in samples

~Jun 2022 - work on shellfish survey

~Jul 2022 - Core sample analysis complete, nothing shall preclude us from being able to dredge.

~Sep 2022 - shellfish survey complete

~Feb 2023 - Report out from engineering company to MSA Dredge Committee; dredging is feasible

~June 2023 - presented report to the Falmouth Waterways Committee

https://us06web.zoom.us/rec/share/jMw0sIR74o6fVHPrA_D3htOpWzX6qWrpk2VGMvyDYLX2tEc5g5YiMUfoj-7W472_.FCb0dbPTGB5-90eI start time at minute 29 and complete at 1 hour

~July 14, 2023 - several members of MSA met with the towns of Falmouth and Bourne to ensure they would hold the dredging permits -

~ August 2023 - Falmouth and Bourne will hold the permits for their respective towns (MOU signed)

~ September 2023 - MSA LLC formed

~ September 14th 2023 - GEI signed contract to work with MSA LLC to produce permits for projects.

~ Nov 5th, 2023 - submitted paperwork to IRS for EIN for MSA LLC

~ March 18th, 2024 - submitted additional paperwork to IRS for EIN via Fax (IRS had required a certification from the state of Massachusetts)

~ May 2, 2024 - GEI met with Falmouth and Bourne to discuss project and collaboration

~ May 2024 - outreach began with the state to discuss the Environmental Justice (EJ) community that is less than a mile from the dredge footprint and will require EJ notifications with 45 day waiting periods once filed.

~ June 2024 - MSA LLC has an EIN and created a bank account with Rockland Trust with three signatories.

~ August/Sept 2024 - After internal discussion with MSA dredge committee, GEI submitted packet to USACE for consideration of offshore disposal of silty dredge spoils. (disposal of silty material upland is $250/CY; where offshore disposal is $85/CY - almost 300% decrease in cost; silty volumes are 36,000 CY in Megansett and Squeteague; this does not include sandy spoil volumes)

~ Aug 2024 - GEI provided general numbers for removal of sandy spoils: $26.50/CY per email with County Dredge Captain Ken C if disposed of locally with the County Dredge or $150/CY if dredged and trucked to a beach or $200/CY if dredged and barged to a beach. (Current River has approximately 21k CY and Megansett Harbor has approximately 5k CY)

~ August 2024 - Notice of Intent for the Megansett Approach dredge project (funded and managed by town of Falmouth, land dredged is in Bourne) provided to MSA Dredge Committee. This location will be the sole responsibility of the town of Falmouth, but is necessary for the success of the project. Dredging to 8’ instead of 9’ as previously agreed.

~ September 5, 2024 - Bourne notified MSA that the NOI for Megansett Approach needed a Natural Heritage response in order to move forward with application

~ October 4, 2024 - Bourne Conservation Commission executed an Order of Conditions for the Megansett Approach.

~ March, 2025 - Falmouth Conservation Commission hears amendment to 10 year permit which would add Megansett Beach as a dewatering location FalCompDredge_Request-to-Amend-SE25-4717-2-25-25

~ March 27, 2025 - sent request to both Bourne and Falmouth towns to see about receiving a state grant to perform spoil testing on dredge spoils in the hopes that the testing would allow the spoils to be dumped in an offshore location. Cost is approx $53,000

~ Early April 2025 - both towns noted that only one submission can be made to the state for a grant and they had other priorities that needed funding from the state.

~ May 2025 - MSA Dredge Committee elected to move forward with additional testing without any monetary support from the towns/state.

~ June 2025 - Contractor arranged to have 22 core samples pulled from the dredge area.

~ Aug 7, 2025 - The contractor produced the following results: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Gm4xTpaDX1ISmRfTG4Eq3_vh_QoJ7u0r/view?usp=drive_link

~ Sept 5, 2025 - MSA presented at Falmouth Waterways Committee meeting. Presented sampling data and shared historical information on this power point: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1FSrdiJcQ1x-kT2dHtS2c1gmzJVZWbxLT/view?usp=sharing

~March 10, 2026 - USACE Suitability Determination for MSA, Towns of Bourne and Falmouth Number NAE-2010-145 to deposit dredge spoils at Cape Cod Bay Disposal Site (CCBDS). The testing and evaluation requirements set forth in Section 404 of the CWA determined that the project area is suitable for offshore disposal.

~March 16, 2026 - US EPA concurs with USACEs findings on open water disposal at CCBDS

~ April 15, 2026 - GEI (Alyssa and Bevlyn) met with Falmouth Harbormaster, Falmouth Conservation Commission, Bourne Harbormaster (Heather), and members of MSA (Molly K, Carl K, Alison F, Scott K, and Gordon J) to discuss findings and use of sand in other locations.

~ June 29, 2026 - GEI (Alyssa and Bevlyn) presented kick-off meeting to USACE - MSA Dredge Committee members (Gordon J and Molly K), Harbormaster Fraser, Josh W and Jen Lincoln (Falmouth), and Department of Resources Director Hannah Lawrence

Mapping of Dredge Footprint: The next picture correlates the test sites with the core samples taken in June 2025, but also shows a great visual of the dredge footprint.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1M5bOQuUDaylfoS43Sag7RDX7FvXgfYlj/view?usp=drive_link

Placement of Sandy Spoils: This project has as much as 26k CY of sandy spoils slated for dredging. Placement of sandy spoils continues to be a challenge.

Lawrence Island: Outreach to Lawrence Island owner, Animal Rescue League of Boston has been unsuccessful. It appears that the ARL board voted to sell this property including the Animal Friends Camp in 2009. Contact with an ARL board member is needed for this possibility to move forward.

Point Beach Owners: Outreach to Point Beach owners included a draft of an easement if removal of dredge spoils was publicly funded. This easement allowed limited public access to the private beaches between high tide and low tide and was not of interest to the owners. Massachusetts law does allow beaches to receive dredge spoils without an easement, however, the dredging would have to be funded privately; see download (mass.gov) paragraph 9.40(4)(a)2

Fundraising Efforts:

In order to move this project to the front of the line in August of 2021, the Megansett Squeteague Association committed to fundraise $200,000 to hire the engineer to survey and permit the project. As of January 2024 we have raised over $215,000.

If you would like to contribute to our cause, please send a check made out to:

"Megansett Squeteague Association, LLC" to MSA c/o Laura Klint at P. O. Box 156, Cataumet, MA 02534

Included with this invite is access to a Google Drive that contains different documents regarding dredging in Megansett Inner Harbor and Current River to Squeteague including the historical dredging contracts from Massachusetts’ annual reports. Follow this link:

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/13g89OuVRqT3PneYntuzQTLL5L1mj7Lb4?usp=sharing

Please touch base with anyone from the MSA Dredging board to include: MollyKammerer@gmail.com or alisonferrante55@gmail.com or Scott Farrow scott.farrow@verizon.net or Gordon Juric gjuric@comcast.net or BigCatShell@gmail.com (Michele Scaife) or Laura.klint@comcast.net to discuss the next steps or to provide any information that you might find of value that could be added to this collaborative.

As an MSA Google Group member, you can choose to see every email that comes through or get a digest or an abridged version or just log on and see what is going on when you are curious without any e-mail.

Anything you send to the group addressed to: Megansett_Dredging@googlegroups.com can be seen by all members.

I hope you find this information helpful.

Molly Kammerer

cell: 603-799-1185

Megansett Squeteague Association, Acting Co-Administrator

MegansettSqueteagueAssoc@gmail.com

www.DredgeFund.com

The Megansett Squeteague Association - Dredging Committee

Linda Carpenter

Ted and Tracy Donley

Scott Farrow

Alison and Giaff Ferrante

Laura and Chris Klint

Molly and Carl Kammerer

Michele and Stephen Scaife

Rick and Sandra Wedge

p.s. This is one of the first message boards I have used and we all are volunteers. Please be kind, patient, and forward on to others!

p.s.s. If you see or hear of a particular meeting, please share with the group! We don’t want to miss a meeting. Long term extended displayed interest is key to getting this project noticed.

p.s.s. For a summary of the dredging within Megansett Harbor and into Squeteague, I welcome you to review the attached presentations at these links:

Presented to Falmouth Waterways Committee December 2020:

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/18fAm0zMRVaASPBkD_hh-rNEFNNxjBU70OWW1vA0lbZ0/edit#slide=id.p

Presented to Falmouth Waterways Committee April 2021:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1iRTFqR6sT-OZhe9utrJOh490tigJqv4C/view?usp=sharing

Presented to Falmouth Waterways Committee June 2023:

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1adaN146yYhdchGBTAFXE3Y6oTC5k2tmZXX-IXQbeC_4/edit?usp=sharing

Presented to Falmouth Waterways Committee Sept 2025:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1aH-ufrWGp5DsmvMhy2YoQlnB3ARzPkdZ/view?usp=sharing

Presented to Bourne Shore and Harbor Committee January 2026:

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1WWxfw5jGcTQuluPi4eFx5zeYO5WdNPhp6klY4O1ormQ/edit?usp=sharing

Open Meetings