Water

Congress expands Great Lakes dredging

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Everybody knows water flows, but not many people know that the sediment below it does too. That’ s why harbors need dredging, or excavating the gradually accumulated material at the bottom of the water and transporting it elsewhere. U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Detroit District had planned eight dredging projects in Michigan and Wisconsin for 2014 worth $13.2 million. But Congress recently allocated an additional $17.8 million. That allows the district to include eight new projects and increase funding for four of the original projects.

Water

Oregon, Toledo councilmen to offer dredging alternative

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(OH) The Toledo Blade – A joint proposal to end the federal government’s controversial practice of dumping dredged material into Lake Erie is to be unveiled in downtown Toledo at 6 p.m. Thursday.  

The alternative is being offered by Sandy Bihn and Lindsey Webb, Oregon and Toledo council members, respectively, who have been working on the issue with a coalition of fishermen, boaters, and environmentalists. More

Echo

Public to get its say on plan for dredging

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(OH) Toledo Blade – State environmental regulators are to convene in downtown Toledo on Jan. 14 to hear the public weigh in on the federal government’s latest plan to dredge the Toledo shipping channel this summer. The plan allows for the possibility of three times as much silt being dumped into western Lake Erie’s fertile North Maumee Bay as is removed during usual dredging. More

Echo

Dredging near Great Lakes OK for now: panel

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(ON) CBC – Navigational dredging along the St. Clair River in southwestern Ontario has contributed to a drop in water levels in the upper Great Lakes basin, but it’s not an ongoing problem and doesn’t require immediate action, a panel of U.S. and Canadian experts has found. Water levels between Lake Michigan and Lake Erie have dropped an average of 23 centimetres between 1963 and 2006, according to a report by the International Upper Great Lakes Study Board. More

Echo

Ottawa River dredging delayed again

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(OH) Toledo Blade – Plans to start a $43 million environmental restoration project along the Ottawa River have hit another scheduling snag, though the federal official in charge of the unprecedented two-year project said it could get under way later this month.  

Scott Cieniawski, an environmental engineer in the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s regional office in Chicago, said the agency and seven local businesses known as the Ottawa River Group are finalizing details for subcontracts required before construction may begin. More

Echo

Saginaw River dredging will clear a path for freighters next year

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(MI) The Saginaw News – Lake freighters have lightened loads for years to snake through the Saginaw River to drop off cargo. 
Burroughs Materials Corp. Manager William H. Kidder hopes dredging set for this spring will end that era. His company takes in limestone used to make asphalt at the Saginaw docks.  More