Posted on December 4, 2017
By Eric Heisig, Cleveland.com
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers said Friday that it completed dredging of Cleveland Harbor and the Cuyahoga River shipping channel and claims it is now working well with Ohio officials as it works toward future dredging projects.
Also on Friday, the Army Corps appealed a ruling by a federal judge who said the Corps abused its discretion in its spat with the Ohio Environmental Protection Association and the Port of Cleveland when it refused to dredge in 2015. The Ohio EPA director said he is disappointed in the Corps’ decision to appeal and that it threatens the progress both sides have made.
An Army Corps news release says it dredged 70,000 cubic yards of sediment in the six-mile shipping channel in Cleveland and placed it all in a confined disposal facility. The Corps has already contracted to dredge in spring and will adhere to the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency’s water standards, the release states.
“We look forward to continuing with the positive momentum we have made with our Cleveland stakeholders,” said Lt. Col. Adam Czekanski, commander of the Army Corps’ district in Buffalo, New York. “Our goal is to build and strengthen relationships with Cleveland area stakeholders, while fully supporting beneficial use options for dredged material.”
The news release appears to be part of a concerted effort by Army Corps to forge a better working relationship with Ohio officials. Both the Ohio EPA and the Army Corps have acknowledged improved relations in the time it took the Corps to dredge Cleveland’s six-mile shipping channel in 2017.
In past years, the Army Corps has fought demands by the state to dispose of dredged sediment shipping channel into containment dikes, instead of in Lake Erie. At issue was the sediment dredged of the sixth mile, which serves the ArcelorMittal steel mill.
While the state EPA said the sludge would pollute the lake, the Corps disagreed and refused to dredge the shipping channel in 2015 and 2016 unless the state paid to dispose of the sediment.
The vitriol in the dispute was on full display in a series of emails the Ohio Attorney General’s Office referenced in a motion in January, which included insults aimed at port officials.
Emails from the Army Corps’ Cleveland Harbor project manager suggested the Corps could reduce the amount of dredging in the shipping channel to affect navigability and “keep the heat on the local users” to approve open-lake dumping.
State and federal officials criticized the Corps and said the federal budget for the dredging project included money for the proper disposal of sediment. Meanwhile, an investigation by a subcommittee led by Ohio Sen. Rob Portman over the Corps’ decision to cut its own budget for the Cleveland project is pending.
Senior U.S. District Judge Donald Nugent ruled in May that the Army Corps abused its discretion in 2015 when it decided the sediment was not harmful to the lake’s ecosystem and refused to dredge. That ruling followed Nugent’s decision in 2015 to force the Army Corps to dredge.
On Friday, the Army Corps appealed Nugent’s decision. The state filed a similar lawsuit in 2016, which is still pending.
Ohio EPA Director Craig Butler said in a statement that he was “surprised and tremendously disappointed that the leadership at the Army Corps of Engineers has decided to sabotage the cooperative progress we made earlier this year regarding Lake Erie dredging issues.
“The Corps’ decision to appeal the judge’s ruling is a terrible misstep, backwards,” Butler said.
Andy Kornacki, spokesman for the Army Corps’ Buffalo district, said Friday that he could not comment on the litigation, and referred a reporter to the Justice Department. A U.S. Attorney’s Office spokesman declined comment.
Regardless of the litigation, Kornacki said “what we’re looking forward to is the future” and to working well with the Ohio EPA and other officials.
Source: cleveland.com
