After months of permitting problems and delays, a plan to dredge Sengekontacket Pond in Oak Bluffs to improve tidal circulation and reduce bacteria levels has been put off until next fall.

Town officials this week received a letter from the Massachusetts Office of Coastal Zone Management saying that it will need to initiate a federal consistency review for the project.

Due to the onset of winter flounder season, there was a Jan. 15 deadline to complete the dredging of some 57,000 cubic yards of sand from a channel between the Big Bridge and Little Bridge. The federal review will take several weeks, effectively ending any hopes of completing the project this winter.

Voters at last year’s annual town meeting agreed to spend $500,000 on the project. Meanwhile, another dredging project continued this week on the Edgartown side of Sengetontacket Pond, with the spoils being spread out for de-watering near the Big Bridge.

The town is reportedly negotiating with the Cow Bay homeowners association to sell approximately 90,000 cubic yards of sand at a cost of $11 per cubic yard for beach renourishment.

Oak Bluffs selectman Duncan Ross, also chairman of a joint committee of the two towns charged with improving water quality in Sengekontacket, expressed his disappointment at the turn of events on his town’s side of the pond.

“The window of opportunity is gone,” Mr. Ross said during the selectmen’s meeting on Tuesday. “And that’s all I have to say. I would like to say a lot more, but I won’t.”