Posted on April 29, 2026
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GAY, Mich. (WBUP/WJMN) — Dredging will resume in Houghton County’s Grand Traverse Harbor, continuing efforts to clean up copper mine tailings deposited at a nearby milling site along Lake Superior.
The tailings — called stamp sands — originated from the Wolverine and Mohawk mines and dumped at the Lake Superior site in the community of Gay in Keweenaw County. Since then, the sands moved downstream approximately five miles, overwhelming habitats important to Lake Superior whitefish and lake trout associated with Grand Traverse Bay’s Buffalo Reef.
“This current dredging project is being done to combat clean sand that has naturally accumulated in the harbor,” said Jay Parent, district supervisor of the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy’s (EGLE) Water Resources Division in Marquette. “While this will benefit both recreational and commercial use of the harbor, the primary purpose is to keep the harbor operational as the Buffalo Reef Task Force continues to mitigate damage to Buffalo Reef and develop a long-term solution to the stamp sand issue.”
To combat the sands’ threat, a variety of dredging efforts have been conducted over the past few years, including the removal of a 25-foot-high bank from the shoreline in 2019.
“Past harbor dredges have been undertaken to remove stamp sand that had entered and blocked the harbor,” Parent said. “Since then, dredging efforts by EGLE and Keweenaw Bay Indian Community have successfully intercepted the material from the stamp sand beach adjacent and north of the harbor before it overtops the harbor wall.”
After evaluating the feasibility and cost of various potential ideas for getting rid of dredged stamp sands, the multi-agency Buffalo Reef Task Force decided to construct an upland facility for disposal. Additionally, they made a jetty to intercept sands moving south.
Beyond loss of fish habitat, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) said the consequences of not maintaining the dredging project include damage to property, potential loss of privately-owned docks, a public boating access site, loss of local jobs, recreational and charter fishing in the area, erosion and pollution of natural shoreline.
