DATE: Wednesday, June 11, 1997              TAG: 9706110414

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B5   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY PAUL CLANCY, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH                    LENGTH:   40 lines

BEACH WARNS BOATERS OF DANGEROUS SHOALS IN RUDEE INLET AGAIN

Three months after an emergency dredging operation reopened Rudee Inlet, the fickle deep-water channel is shoaling again.

The city Tuesday recommended that mariners use caution when navigating the inlet due to shoaling at its mouth. Water depths of less than 5 feet at mean low water exist on the north side of the entrance, the city said.

The U.S. Coast Guard was asked to issue a notice to mariners advising them of the condition, and signs have been posted warning boaters of dangerous shoaling.

The conditions are the result of seven days of strong northeast winds that drove waves and sand into the inlet mouth, the city said.

There's no comparison to the situation in late winter that forced emergency dredging costing nearly $400,000, city officials said. Instead, they called the new shoaling a ``setback.''

``The channel is by no means closed,'' said Carl A. Thoren, the city's beach management engineer. ``It's worthy of some mention, but it's not a catastrophe.''

Boaters traversing the inlet should hug the south side of the channel on entering and stay in the center as they're passing the Lighthouse Restaurant.

The city has been hit by lawsuits by the owners of yachts that have been damaged by running around in the inlet. The courts have held that the city has the responsibility to keep it open. But city dredging equipment has been unequal to the task.

So bad was the shoaling last winter that the city closed the inlet and hired a private firm to bring in a heavy-duty dredge to get the job done.

The inlet is manmade, and nature is constantly trying to reclose it. To keep up, the city runs an almost-constant dredging operation and has to get help from the Army Corps of Engineers or private companies every year.

The city-owned dredge Rudee Inlet II returned to work Tuesday afternoon and will continue to dredge around the clock as weather permits, the city said.

``If things start to deteriorate, we'll have to bring someone in again,'' Thoren said.

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