Posted on May 14, 2025
Harbor Beach has added a $450,000 dredging project to the list of infrastructure improvements the city has taken on, including its Pack Street Pier, road project and water system upgrades.
The dredging project comes as Lake Huron continues a cycle of lower lake levels, causing navigational challenges across the shoreline.
“We’re dredging our marina. Lake levels are low, so we have our own equipment, so we’re currently dredging that,” said Harbor Beach City Manager Ron Wruble. “We got a grant from the DNR to help us with that project. We proceeded about a week ago, and that’ll be ongoing for the entire boating season this year, probably up until Thanksgiving.”
Wruble said it will take some time to complete the project.
“It’s a slow process, it just takes a lot of time,” Wruble said. “We’re moving 21,000 cubic yards of material and it’s time-consuming. The sediment that we’re bringing up has been approved for a disposal site that we truck it to and put in a land-based disposal that’s also been approved.”
In total, the dredging project costs $450,000. Harbor Beach received half the amount — $225,000 — in a grant from the Michigan Department of Natural Resources to assist with the work.
Michigan State Rep. Greg Alexander raised concerns about declining lake levels and their impact on harbors throughout the district, which includes 150 miles of shoreline, at his office hour on April 25. He said warmer winters in recent years have contributed to the buildup of sandbars and more frequent dredging issues.
“This district has 150 miles of lakeshore and lots of ports that are experiencing sandbars,” Alexander said. “The water level of the lake has been going down — not so much this year, but in the last couple of years, we had warm winters to the point where we didn’t even have weight restrictions.”
Alexander said he first noticed the pattern of declining lake levels more than a decade ago when he was elected drain commissioner in 2008. By 2010 and 2012, water levels had dropped enough to prompt emergency dredging efforts. The Army Corps of Engineers stepped in at the time, bypassing some state regulatory processes to get the work done quickly.
In contrast, lake levels rebounded in 2014 and 2015 after two particularly cold winters that froze the lake over and prevented evaporation. As a result, the state shifted from dredging to installing seawalls to protect shoreline properties from rising water.
“Now, we’ve faced a couple of warm years again, and we’re seeing the opposite effect — it’s actually going back down,” Alexander said. “The sandbars that have accumulated over the last 12 years are becoming an issue. We’ve got boats getting stuck trying to get out of harbors, and that’s not exclusive to any one area.”
The accumulation of sandbars over more than a decade is now causing navigation problems for boaters. The representative said federal help will likely be needed to address the problem.
The Army Corps of Engineers was not available for comment before press deadline.
