CHARLESTOWN, R.I. (WPRI) — Boaters are being advised to avoid the Charlestown Breachway if possible or use caution when traveling through it due to the elevated levels of the channel’s floor.

The Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management (DEM) and town officials say years of severe weather and the strong winter storms in 2023 caused one of the breachway’s stone walls to deteriorate.

Without the stone wall, water has been pulling sand in front of the breachway and into the channel. The DEM says with the buildup of sediments, the channel’s floor is now only two or three feet deep at low tide.

“The sediment buildup has kind of really narrowed the channel, and depending on currents and waves … that could change day to day,” DEM Director Terrence Gray told 12 News. “It’s really a situation where we need to get it fixed.”

The DEM is working with the town to figure out how to effectively repair the breachway.

“A lot of the answers that you’re going to see for the long-term solutions are better buffers, better natural barriers between the ocean and some of the properties we’re trying to protect,” Gray explained.

The breachway also plays a role in maintaining a healthy ecosystem in the salt marshes. According to Gray, the DEM is looking into possible short-term solutions for the coming winter. The department will focus more on a long-term solution next summer.

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