Posted on October 6, 2016
By James F. McCarty, Cleveland Connects
Lawyers for the Ohio EPA, the Port of Cleveland and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers on Tuesday were attempting to hammer out an agreement to dredge the Cuyahoga River shipping channel, and to overcome a demand by the Corps that could sink the deal.
The Army Corps proposed Monday to end the year-long stalemate with a controversial provision: that Ohio pay the additional cost of disposing of the dredged sediment in a confined containment dike on the Lake Erie shoreline.
“Nothing is a done deal yet,” said Jade Davis, a vice president at the Port of Cleveland. “We have not yet heard where the sediment will be disposed, how much dredging will be done, or when the dredging will take place.”
Army Corps spokesman Andrew Kornacki said no dredging contract would be awarded to an outside company until a federal judge signs an order formalizing an agreement with the EPA and the Port of Cleveland.
The Corps’ proposal is to dredge the entire six-mile shipping channel, Kornacki said.
EPA tests have determined the sediment is too polluted with PCBs for open-lake dumping, and the state agency has insisted the dredged material be stored at the Corps’s Dike 10 or the Port of Cleveland’s Dike 12 near Burke Lakefront Airport.
“We are prepared at the Port to handle all of the dredged sediment, if need be,” Davis said.
A spokeswoman for the EPA deferred comment on the dispute until the negotiations are completed.
The Army Corps said its tests have found the sediment to be clean enough for open-lake disposal, and insists it doesn’t have sufficient funds to pay the additional $2 million to $4.5 million required for on-land disposal.
“It is also important to note that the Corps of Engineers stands behind the science that has determined that sediment in the upper one mile of the Cuyahoga River federal navigation channel is suitable for open-lake placement in accordance with the Clean Water Act,” Kornacki said.
Kornacki said the Army Corps is authorized — but not mandated — to maintain the upper reaches of the shipping channel to a depth of 23 feet. High water on Lake Erie has kept the river navigable until now, but a recent buildup of sediment near the ArcelorMittal steel mill docks has made dredging necessary, he said.
The shrinking channel has forced cargo ships to “light load” their deliveries to avoid bottoming out or becoming stuck, resulting in a critical shortage of iron ore pellets to “the lowest level in a couple of decades,” Davis said.
Without a dredged channel and a major boost in iron ore supplies, ArcelorMittal officials feared they might have to shut down the steel mill’s blast furnaces by the end of the year.
ArcelorMittal lawyers asked to intervene in the ongoing federal lawsuit, and pleaded for an expedited order from U.S. District Judge Donald Nugent forcing the Army Corps to dredge the channel and dispose of the sediment in a confined containment facility.
During a normal year, the Corps would have dredge the channel in May and September, but insisted it wasn’t necessary until now.
Barring an agreement between the opposing government agencies, 2016 would be the first time in at least 30 years that the Corps had failed to dredge the shipping channel and harbor, Kornacki said.
ArcelorMittal is responsible for dredging around its docks, but it can’t dredge until the Army Corps completes its work in the center of the shipping channel, said Port of Cleveland President and CEO Will Friedman.
Ohio’s U.S. senators, Sherrod Brown and Rob Portman, wrote recently to Assistant Secretary of the Army Jo-Ellen Darcy, demanding an end to the Army Corps’ “irresponsible” decision not to dredge.
The dispute is further complicated by the Army Corps’ much-criticized decision in January to ask for a $3 million cut in federal funds budgeted for the Cleveland dredging project. Portman, as chairman of the Senate’s Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, is heading an investigation into the Corps’ appropriation maneuver.
The senators issued a joint statement Tuesday evening revealing that they had met with Army Corps officials last week to press for a resolution to the stalemate.
“I’m pleased that the Corps has finally acknowledged the need to dredge the Cleveland Harbor this year,” Portman said. “As we have said before, open lake placement of dredged material is unacceptable. Dredging the harbor channel is critical to jobs and the economy in Cleveland and Northeast Ohio, and I hope this issue is resolved as quickly as possible. We’ll continue to use every tool available to make sure Lake Erie is protected.”
Brown said: “The Army Corps of Engineers’ delay in dredging the Cleveland Harbor has already interrupted commerce in the area and it’s past time for the Corps to fulfill its obligation to maintain the Cuyahoga River shipping channel. I’m glad the Corps has answered our call to dredge the shipping channel and to safely dispose of the sediment in a way that protects the progress we’ve made in cleaning up Lake Erie.”
Source: cleveland.com
