The Port of Peninsula was the subject of a new state inspection earlier this month.

NAHCOTTA and TOKELAND — Port of Willapa Harbor and Port of Peninsula have been awarded $3.2 million for dredging by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers from the Federal Harbor Maintenance Trust Fund.

The award to both ports was announced by John Hicks, the corps’ head of navigation.

The funds will pay for dredging access to three marina basins in Willapa Bay:

• Access to the Tokeland Marina on the Tokeland peninsula at the north end of the bay;

• Access to the Bay Center Marina at Bay Center, near the geographic center of the bay;

• Access to the Port of Peninsula, including dredging the entire 40-acre Nahcotta Boat Basin located on the bay between 275th and 273rd streets, just east of Ocean Park.

“This is extraordinary news for the Nahcotta Boat Basin and our communities,” Jay Personius, general manger at the Port of Peninsula, said in a Nov. 8 press release. “Here we have a chance to work together again with the Port of Willapa Harbor and the Corps of Engineers dredging approximately 150,000 cubic yards of sediment from our basin. These actions protect our commercial shellfish growing jobs, commercial crabbers and salmon fishers, as well as increase access for local recreational boaters and fishing enthusiasts.”

Started in 1959, the Nahcotta Boat Basin was a joint project by the corps and the port. “The Army Corps of Engineers helped build this facility and have pledged to collaborate with us to keep it highly useful for the workers and employers who count on this facility daily,” Personius said.

Jim Sayce of Seaview, manager of the Port of Willapa noted, “The USACE used to dredge Bay Center and Tokeland access channels on a regular cycle, but that ended nearly 20 years ago. Now we’ve a chance to work together with a dredging plan strategy and continuously support our fishing, shell fishing and recreational fisheries and relieve some of the local financial burden.”

Sayce noted that the Port of Willapa stepped up to the plate under former Manager Rebecca Chaffee and dredged the access channels to the marinas when federal funding was not available. That local effort took equipment, time, a solid crew and port funding. The corps’ new strategy “is a good one and we need support to continue it on a 5-8 year cycle,” he said.

Both managers thanked Washington Sens. Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell, as well as U.S. Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler. “Our congressional representation have been highly supportive of federal dredging funding,” Sayce and Personius said.

This isn’t the first time these two ports have formally cooperated. In 2011, Port of Peninsula and Willapa Harbor jointly funded a study to find the best site for flow lane water disposal of dredge sediment under former managers Mary DeLong (Peninsula) and Rebecca Chafee (Willapa).