Currituck's Board of Commissioners agreed Monday to support a plan to dredge a former boat basin in Currituck Sound near Currituck Heritage Park in Corolla.

The head of the Whalehead Preservation Trust recently sent a letter to U.S. Sen. Richard Burr, R-N.C., seeking support for the dredging project. Whalehead officials say the dredging is needed to repair the damage they claim was done to the basin by the N.C. Department of Transportation.

DOT was ordered to repair the illegally dug channel after it was created by an agency workboat's prop wash in 2004. At the time, DOT Ferry Division workers said the dredging was accidental. But a subsequent investigation revealed it was done on purpose. Several DOT Ferry Division workers, including then director Jerry Gaskill, pleaded guilty to charges of either digging the channel illegally or covering it up after the fact.

Trust officials say DOT's fixes to the channel have made it more difficult for boats to maneuver over what was once a boat basin near Corolla. They say the only way to fix the damage is to dredge the basin.

County Manager Dan Scanlon said because the county owns the Whalehead property where the basin is located, Currituck commissioners would have to get involved for the dredging proposal to be considered.

"We have all seen the letters that the Whalehead Trust sent to Sen. (Richard) Burr and to other folks," he said. "The trust has expressed interest again in trying to get access to the boat basin by dredging. Because Currituck County is the property owner we will have to be the applicant for any act that's done. They are trying to reopen what we think's an existing channel to try to get access into the boat basin."

Scanlon said that in the past the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service have opposed the dredging. According to Scanlon, both agencies have argued that there is little history showing the basin has been used as a channel. But Scanlon said Monday the county now has documentation indicating the Navy dredged the basin in the 1940s and 1950s.

"We have some hard dimensions that we've never had before," he said.

Barry Nelms, chairman of the Board of Commissioners, said the bottom of the channel had silted over and would do so again unless there was regular boat traffic.

"There's no hard bottom there; no fish habitat — never was," Nelms said.