Posted on November 29, 2016
By Jordan Beck, Daily Press
A pair of unrelated dredging projects in Manistique will increase ship navigability in the city’s inner harbor and remove contaminated sediments from sections of the Manistique River.
The first of the projects is being run by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) Detroit District. The primary goal of the USACE’s project is to make Manistique’s inner harbor more navigable for ships.
“We’re doing it to… allow for navigability in and out of that harbor,” Project Manager Melissa Bosman said.
Bosman said the USACE is contracted to remove about 2,700 cubic yards of sediment from the inner harbor. Since the last time they dredged the harbor in 2010, a significant amount of sediment had built up there.
“The channel had shoaled in pretty well over the years,” she said.
Some areas of the harbor were just five feet deep by the time work on the USACE’s dredging project officially began on Oct. 22. According to Bosman, the project is expected to be finished by the end of November.
“I would say we’re probably a little more than halfway done,” she said.
Bosman said that, thanks to the work put in by contractor Great Lakes Dock and Materials, the project has been going smoothly so far.
“It’s been a successful project, so we’re very happy with it,” she said.
In backwater coves near the Manistique River’s main channel, the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) is wrapping up a dredging project of its own. Unlike the USACE’s project, the DEQ’s project is designed to lower the river’s levels of polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB). For decades, the DEQ has listed the Manistique River as a Great Lakes Area of Concern due to contamination from PCBs and other sources.
According to Project Manager Mike Alexander, dredging work for the project started in mid-August. However, it was in the planning stages well before 2016.
“We’ve been working on getting to that point for a couple years now,” he said.
Alexander said things have been going well for the DEQ’s dredging project.
“It’s been a good project so far,” he said.
As of last week, Alexander said the majority of the project had been completed.
Source: Daily Press
