Posted on December 8, 2025
A local organization that has been urging the state to dredge Lake Logan is currently reviewing an internal state document, which details how the Ohio Department of Natural Resources is implementing recommendations in a critical report on its dredging program that was issued by the state auditor in February 2023.
ODNR, meanwhile, has suggested that the changes it’s making in response to the auditor’s critique have improved its efficiency, and made it more likely that it can finally come up with a feasible plan for dredging Lake Logan as an important step in arresting the decline of its health. The lake is steadily filling up with silt and being taken over by vegetation.
In response to a question from The Logan Daily News, ODNR issued this statement:
“ODNR’s changes to the dredging program include improved report tracking and use of surveying equipment to make project planning more efficient, and more accurate for regulatory coordination purposes.”
On the specific question of dredging at Lake Logan, the agency said, “the primary challenge has been identifying a suitable dredge material relocation area (DMRA). To date, the program has explored approximately 13 potential sites. Each option ultimately proved unsuitable for a variety of reasons — including floodplain constraints, environmental considerations, access limitations, cost factors, or simply not meeting the technical requirements needed for a DMRA (such as size, location, elevation, or pipeline feasibility). We remain committed to finding an appropriate site and continuing the work necessary to support the long-term health of Lake Logan.”
As previously reported in The Logan Daily News, in 2023 the state auditor reviewed the performance of ODNR’s dredging program, which is overseen by the agency’s Division of Parks and Watercraft. The ensuing report contained much that was critical of the program.
According to the audit report, ODNR was not tracking enough good data and keeping it effectively organized, making it difficult or impossible for the agency to plan and prioritize dredging projects. The report recommended four steps ODNR could take to improve the situation.
These included developing a formal process to identify, prioritize and track dredging projects; improving collection of dredge-related performance data; tightening internal controls around cost reporting; and developing a strategic plan with goals and metrics for the dredge program.
ODNR has been submitting updates on how it is responding to the auditor’s recommendations, which the auditor’s office has collected. The auditor makes clear, however, that the resulting document is not a report from the Auditor of State.
According to ODNR, it has instituted a system to track dredging performance, with employees entering their daily work assignments into a database including details such as project location, project number, equipment used, hours of work, and cubic yards/weeds harvested. Since implementing the system in July 2023, the agency says, it has compiled around 10,000 entries that can be used for writing reports and tracking project costs.
The 2023 audit report noted that from 2017 to 2021, ODNR spent an average of $5.5 million a year on its dredge program, but recorded, on average, only $2.1 million per year of project-specific expenditures, meaning that “more than half of the Division’s dredge program expenditures cannot be tied to specific dredging activities.”
In response, ODNR says that it has updated and expanded the use of reporting codes, enabling it to tie costs to specific projects.
ODNR says it has also developed the recommended strategic plan, which includes projections for both personnel and equipment needs. In connection with this plan it has purchased a survey boat to help with channel depth measurements, and has also hired a dredge planner, who has developed a standard operating procedure for evaluating potential dredge projects.
ODNR says it also plans to hire more employees for the dredge program, but that “this has been a struggle” due to factors that include an inability to match wages in the private sector.
“HR and dredge supervisots have reached out to local high school trade schools to give presentations on the dredge program and what it takes to be a dredge operator,” the agency notes. “There was some interest but no one has been hired thru this avenue.”
The Lake Logan Association, a volunteer citizen group launched in 2024, has suggested that the issues raised in the 2023 audit report have played a significant role in ODNR’s failure thus far to come up with a dredging plan for the lake.
Asked for comment on the updates provided by ODNR, LLA founding member Maria Myers told The Logan Daily News that the group’s board plans to review it at a Dec. 15 meeting and formulate an opinion then.
