BELFAST – The harbor committee estimates it will cost upward of $86,000 to replace wooden pilings infested by marine worms.

Committee members and Harbor Master Kathy Messier are scheduled to outline their recommendation to the City Council when it meets Tuesday night.

According to a report filed at City Hall, the panel wants to replace the damaged pilings with a combination of metal and rubber anchoring devices and new pilings of greenheart, an exotic wood native to South America.

“I believe it’s kind of a mongrel solution, but I think we are covering all the bases,” harbor committee Chairman Jim Black said Monday. “I just hope the council approves this so we can get on with fixing this.”

Almost all of the city’s support pilings are infested by the toredo navalis, a voracious, wood-devouring bivalve that has been ruining wooden pilings and vessels for centuries.

The ship worms found their way into the harbor last year and munched through most of the city’s pilings by the end of summer.

The toredos are actually a clam that grows a worklike appendage. It feeds on plankton and burrows into wood to evade predators. In the case of pilings, the worm’s extensive tunneling eventually weakens them to the point where they topple over at the slightest pressure.

When Messier hired a diver to take a worms-eye view of the situation in September, he reported that virtually every piling had been assaulted.

“Basically all of them have worms,” Messier said Monday.

Messier said the committee was recommending the replacement of every city-owned support piling. The fender pilings along the breakwater and city wharf are not included in the request because they are not of structural importance. But they may also be home to the worms.

The estimated cost of the project is $85,800, and Messier indicated that the need to act quickly on the recommendation is critical. She said a number of other communities have experienced worm damage and that it is critical to be positioned on marine contractors’ waiting lists in time for the work to begin next spring.

“The contractors are already being booked, and the sooner we can get it out to bi the sooner we can get it done,” said Messier.

The harbor committee looked at a number of solutions during their review of the problem. They settled on greenheart wood for 23 driven pilings and 11 pairs of Helix-Seaflex float-support systems.

Greenheart wood is a South American hardwood that has proven resistant to ship worms. Because it is a rain-forest species, the committee has insisted that the greenheart pilings will be obtained from a certified supplier of legally harvested trees, said Messier.

The Helix-Seaflex units consist of a metal screw anchor that is embedded in the sea floor. A rubber cord is attached to the anchors and affixed, in turn, to the floats on the surface. The cord stretches back and forth with the tide. The floats are then secured to the greenheart pilings.

Committee chairman Black said installation of the recommended system will require a strict timetable

He said the floats would need to be configured and put in place first, followed by the pilings.

Black noted that without new pilings, there will be no floats in the harbor next summer. That is why it is crucial for the council to act promptly, he said.

“We can’t put our floats back in. If we don’t fix the landing we won’t have one,” Black said.

“We aren’t left with any options and we aren’t left with any time. Everybody wants a contractor and everybody is on the top of everybody’s list. The guys that are doing pilings and the guys that are doing piers are going to be busy this summer.”