Posted on April 25, 2025
Earlier this month Michigan Congressman Bill Huizenga released a statement regarding the Whitmer Administration’s “ill-defined” EGLE requirements for PFAS testing as a condition for harbor dredging.
EGLE is the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy. It is responsible for Michigan’s waterways among other things.
Huizenga’s press release said that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) recently informed his office that USACE Headquarters will not authorize PFAS testing until the State of Michigan defines the threshold for acceptable levels. Without this clarification from the State of Michigan, Huizenga stated, new dredging cannot occur. The Congressman also said that the inability to remove material from inner harbors threatens imminent shoaling and harbor closures.
According to news sources, on March 26, 2025, USACE rejected a request for funding to test Grand Haven harbor sediment for PFAS, a class of toxic chemicals which state regulators have spent nearly a decade aggressively testing for around Michigan. USACE says PFAS testing in Grand Haven and elsewhere threatens to drive up dredging costs if the sediment is toxic enough to require landfilling.
The state has been creating guidance since last fall on how the Army Corps can go about testing. According to EGLE, 17 of the 69 navigation channels in Michigan maintained by USACE are either close enough to one of the state’s more than 300 known PFAS sources, or have high enough contaminant levels in the ambient surface water to warrant testing. Those include the Clinton and Detroit rivers, and harbors in Alpena, Port Huron, St. Clair, Grand Haven, Holland, Manistee, Menominee, Monroe, Saginaw, St. Joseph, and South Haven.
While the federal government is responsible for maintaining navigable harbors for shipping, the state owns Great Lakes harbor bottomlands and has the authority to require dredging projects meet water quality standards under Section 401 of the Clean Water Act through a certification process.
“We don’t want dredge material placed in a way that it’s going to create a contaminated site that then is required to be cleaned up,” Gillian Gainsley, EGLE chief of staff, has been quoted as saying.
Gainsley said EGLE became authorized to require sediment testing for PFAS in 2020, but the agency did not ask the Army Corps to test harbor bottoms until a couple years ago.
Thus far, Grand Haven is the only Michigan dredging project delayed thanks to a schedule that allows EGLE and USACE time to finalize testing parameters. Other harbors on the list aren’t scheduled for dredging until 2026.
South Haven City Manager Kate Hosier said that South Haven has a concern about harbor dredging. “The EGLE mandate would likely increase costs for testing of the materials dredged and overall project costs,” Hosier said. “Moreover, the city’s understanding is that EGLE has not set acceptable levels for any PFAS standards. As such, the Army Corps of Engineers is unable to conduct any dredging in Michigan harbors.”
Hosier also noted that South Haven is pursuing a five-year dredge permit that will allow for dredging should water levels continue to drop. “PFAS testing requirement by the EGLE will also impact the federal funding for dredging of small, recreational harbors like South Haven,” she said. “If there is less money for dredging because of increased or additional requirements on testing, federal dredge funds do not stretch very far. Small, recreational harbors like South Haven are low on the priority list due to lack of commercial shipping activity.”
She added that inner harbors, such as South Haven, need regular dredging to ensure that severe shoaling is removed. Shoaling occurs when sediment accumulates in shallow areas, which in turn reduces water depth. Shoaling, Hosier said, is occurring at the mouth of the South Haven Harbor as well as in the turning basin.
