Posted on August 24, 2022
Port Huron is getting a late-season extension from the state to allow additional dredging on the Black River Canal and address an “almost impassable” build-up of material for boaters.
That’s according to City Manager James Freed, who told City Council members via email on Monday that officials were hoping to convince the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy, to sign off on an emergency amendment to the city’s permit.
Normally capped at 9,000 cubic yards of material a year, the administrator wrote crews had already dredged 7,900, removing more than 3,000 cubic yards during the last round. The remaining 1,100, he said, “wouldn’t be enough to open the canal to get boats through.”
“I’ve been getting phone calls. People yelling at me, complaining that we’re not doing anything. But they don’t realize that I don’t have the legal authority to go do it, or I would,” Freed said in an interview Monday. “We’re trying to make the case to the state. They say it’s not an emergency. Well, you’re in a small vessel in a squall, it is an emergency. They need that evacuation route. And so, we need that canal dredged. We have contractors ready to do it, willing to do it. I just need the state to sign off.”
By early Tuesday, however, Freed said EGLE was allowing them to file for a “minor permit” for one dredging of up to 5,000 cubic yards.
Going through the normal process to amend the cap, he alleged, would’ve put dredging out past the bulk of the boating season. Now, he cautioned boaters it’d be a few more days until a contractor could mobilize to begin the next step.
On Tuesday, EGLE spokesman Hugh McDiarmid said the issue did not meet the definition of an emergency permit under state laws for regulating submerged lands.
But the minor permit category, he said, would cover the excavation and removal of sediment in previously dredged areas, and that it’d be the “quickest and best way for the city to get approval to dredge” additionally.
“My understanding is that our staff discussed this option with the city manager this morning,” McDiarmid said via email, “and he indicated he would have a request in for that Minor Permit option by the end of the day today.”
According to emails between city engineering staff also shared with council members, reissuing a dredging permit could take up to 120 days and require a 20-day public notice. McDiarmid said they should have a determination on the minor permit request prior to Labor Day weekend if the application was received Tuesday.
Freed had reportedly asked engineering staff to put the city’s dredging contractor on notice to dredge the canal prior to Labor Day weekend. In follow-up, the city manager said it wouldn’t come until at least the end of the week.
