Dredging began Wednesday just off the Demopolis City Landing. "We’re dredging some of our small boat access channels," said Teresa Adams, environmental protection specialist with the local office of the U.S. Corps of Engineers at the Demopolis Lock and Dam. "We have a program that we do this whenever we are funded." The funding for dredging is an add-on to the annual budget, she said.

The work is being done by the U.S. Corps vessel Ros, whose port is out of Tuscaloosa. "It’s a snag boat," Adams said. "It’s basically used for snagging in the navigation channels. Ros is also used for our lock maintenance."

The purpose of the dredging is to keep the channels open, she said. Over the years they fill in with silt. It depends on "how the water fluctuates whether we’re going to have a lot of silt."

Adams did not know how long the project would take. "It depends on how much material they have to remove," she said.

There are a list of small boat channel dredging sites the Corps will try to get to, she said. "It depends on how long it takes and if we run out of money befre we get to all of them….Ros is heading up river on the Black Warrior, and there are sites designated that they will be dredging."