Posted on July 15, 2024
CONNEAUT — After years of planning and construction, the city’s Conneaut Creek Dredge Reclamation Facility is in use for the first time.
The new facility, built on the Canadian National dock property, consists of three sluiceways and a serpentine channel. Dredged material is pumped into the sluiceways, where it sits until the dirt and other materials settle out, then the clean water is released back into Conneaut Creek.
The facility is necessary because of a state law that banned open-lake dumping of dredged material. The law was signed in 2015, but went into effect in 2020.
The facility was paid for by grant funds from the state.
The city hosted a groundbreaking in the fall of 2022, and construction largely took place in 2023. Trucks brought soil from a parcel on Hatches Corners Road in Monroe to the site of the facility.
Construction started with placing a clay cap over the entire site, and the facility was built on top of that.
At a council meeting on Monday night, City Manager Nick Sanford said dredging for this year is complete.
“Five years of silt build-up does add up, so we’re very happy with the outcome,” he said.
Council President Terry Moisio said the dredging was quick.
Sanford said the city had a meeting with representatives of the Ohio EPA, who were pleased with the facility.
“They’re very excited because they view Conneaut, and particularly Conneaut Creek, as a model for what this material could do, because of how clean the creek bed is, and how clean our harbor is,” he said.
Last week, Sanford said the process has gone incredibly well, and at that point, the dredging was two-thirds of the way completed.
“Everything has performed flawlessly, I would say, for the most part,” he said with a laugh.
Everyone took safety precautions during the severe weather that happened recently, Sanford said.
Samples will be taken from the dredged material as it sits in the facility, to test for the total amount of suspended solids, as required by the Ohio EPA, Sanford said.
“No other requirements for water quality are requested by the agency due to the very clean nature of the dredged material, based on years of study,” he said.
Moisio said this has been a long time coming.
“Everything’s kind of coming to fruition,” he said.
Moisio said everything was going as planned with the dredging.
A ribbon cutting took place in October of last year.
At the ribbon cutting, former Conneaut City Manager Jim Hockaday said more than 16,000 American jobs rely on the port, which generates $3 billion in annual revenue.
Scudder Mackey, chief of the ODNR Office of Coastal Management, also spoke at the ribbon cutting, and said he and two others sketched the design for the Conneaut facility.
“We literally sketched out this basic design on a napkin at Maumee State Park,” he said.
The first facility was built in Cleveland, adjacent to Burke Lakefront Airport, and has since been updated, Mackey said.
“That’s really what started this whole process, and this has sort of translated to multiple sites, including Conneaut,” he said.
