Posted on July 20, 2017
The Michigan Department of Natural Resources will host a meeting to tell the public about a proposed dredging project designed to restore the Grand Traverse Harbor channel and help protect Buffalo Reef.
The meeting will be at 6 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 3 at the Lake Linden-Hubbell High School Auditorium, located at 601 Calumet Street in Lake Linden.
Public input from this meeting will be considered before the project application is finalized.
Representatives of several agencies cooperating with the DNR on the proposed project will attend the session, including the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality.
Tailings, or waste rock from mining, known locally as “stamp sands,” were dumped into Lake Superior near the community of Gay, more than 100 years ago. These sands have moved, with the action of the lake, about 5 miles south along the coast and in nearshore areas.
The stamps sands are now filling in Grand Traverse Harbor and threaten Buffalo Reef, an important spawning area for lake trout and whitefish.
The DNR is applying for a permit from the DEQ, under the Great Lakes Submerged Lands Act, to allow the Army Corps to remove some of the stamp sands from the lake. Doing this will reestablish the Grand Traverse Harbor channel and provide 5-7 years of protection for Buffalo Reef.
The EPA has provided funding for the Army Corps to design and carry out the dredging work to remove 205,000 cubic yards of stamp sand—about 35,000 cubic yards from in or near the harbor and 170,000 cubic yards to protect Buffalo Reef.
Over the next couple of years, a task force will be convened by the EPA to develop a long-term plan for protecting the harbor and reef.
The project is proposed to take place in Schoolcraft Township in Houghton County. Some of the placement of the stamp sands removed from the lake is tentatively planned for Sherman Township in Keweenaw County.
Source: TV6
