Posted on September 5, 2018
The Ogden Dunes and Portage beaches are disappearing. A short-term solution has been identified, but the way to pay for it hasn’t.
State Sen. Karen Tallian, D-Ogden Dunes, considers this an emergency worthy of state assistance.
She’s asking for the Indiana Department of Homeland Security, which does for Indiana what the Federal Emergency Management Agency does for the nation, to pay the extra $400,000 to $500,000 it would cost to have sand already being dredged deposited on the beach instead of in deep water.
That amounts to $4 to $5 per cubic yard to dump the 100,000 cubic yards of sand already being dredged on land instead of in deep water.
Blame it on breakwalls
“Sand travels around the lake in a clockwise fashion,” Tallian told the Porter County Council last week. But when a breakwall or other manmade structure extends into Lake Michigan, the flow is interrupted.
“Because sand backs up on the east side of the breakwall, it has to be moved,” she said.
That’s where dredging comes in.
Sand is dug up from the east side and deposited elsewhere.
It’s a problem that dates back to the late 1960s, when the Port of Indiana-Burns Harbor opened, Tallian said.
She crafted a new law this year that requires dredged sand to be placed on the beach, rather than in deep water. Problem solved, right? Wrong.
The Army Corps of Engineers has said the state law doesn’t apply to the federal agency.
The Corps of Engineers dredges the state’s port. ArcelorMittal pays to dredge its entrance.
NIPSCO used to dredge farther east, for its Bailly Generating Station, but no longer does. Tallian said Ogden Dunes objected to its permit renewal, hoping to get the sand dumped on the beach, but NIPSCO withdrew its application instead. The plant since has been closed.
Tallian wants the sand dredged from properties just east of the Burns Waterway to be dumped on the Portage beach so it can naturally flow westward, replenishing both the Portage and Ogden Dunes beaches.
Pavilion in peril
Tallian — along with Ogden Dunes Town Council President Tim Nelson, I-5th, and Beach Nourishment and Preservation Committee Chairman Rodger Howell — told the County Council the pavilion at Portage Lakefront and Riverwalk is in danger of being washed away. A few bad storms could do for the pavilion what it did to the walkway that collapsed in January, Tallian said.
The council suggested going to the Northwest Indiana Regional Development Authority for the emergency funding. The RDA invested $10 million in that crown jewel of the Marquette Plan.
“It’s probably not a bad idea for them to pony up,” said Councilman Dan Whitten, D-at-large.
“They don’t want the building in the lake either,” Tallian said.
Councilman Jeff Larson, R-at-large, said he owns a boat and is often on Lake Michigan.
“Almost none of the homes along the lakeshore have any sand in front of them,” he said.
If the sand is deposited on the beach, that would solve the problem for several years, Nelson said.
Long-term fix
Work continues on finding a long-term solution.
U.S. Rep. Mike Quigley, D-Ill., and Indiana Lt. Gov. Suzanne Crouch are among high-profile politicians who have been given tours this summer to see the effects of the erosion firsthand.
Nelson said a Corps of Engineers study underway now would identify a potential solution.
“The long-term solution, it could be 10 years,” Tallian said.
She has talked to U.S. Rep. Pete Visclosky, D-Gary, numerous times, she said.
Tallian said the Indiana Ports Commission, which she said has deep pockets, should come up with the money for beach nourishment.
So far, the commission has balked at the extra cost.
“They’re cordial, but we get no relief,” Tallian said.
Until then, Tallian is asking for help in shaking loose funding for the emergency beach nourishment.
Ogden Dunes already has declared the situation an emergency. Portage has been asked to do so. The Porter County Board of Commissioners, not the council, declares emergencies, she learned last week.
Source: nwi.com
