Posted on June 4, 2019
PORT CLINTON – As Lake Erie’s record high water levels continue to erode shorelines across the region, a prominent group of lakefront property owners hope the state’s permitting process will allow residents to quickly protect and repair their properties.
Ohio Lakefront Group members met Thursday at the Catawba Island Club for their annual meeting, with shoreline erosion, algae and Lake Erie’s record levels on everyone’s mind.
The group, which has about 7,000 members, approached the Ohio Department of Natural Resources last year about the idea of using temporary permits to combat shoreline erosion in the wake of Lake Erie’s high water levels.
“Obviously this year, the water’s even higher,” said OLG President Tony Yankel.
Lake Erie’s ordinary high-water mark (OHWM) is 573.4 feet. The lake’s forecast water level Friday was 574.54 feet, according to the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers’ Detroit office, and has risen six inches since May 1.
ODNR’s coastal management office now offers temporary shore structure permits for landowners along Lake Erie who want to limit the effects of erosion.
Yankel said his group has historically favored the Army Corps’ nationwide permitting procedure over ODNR’s due to the federal agency’s less-onerous process for issuing permits.
The OLG president said he’s heard there have been 95 applications filed this year for temporary ODNR shoreline permits.
“There’s certainly a lot more coming this year because of the water level,” Yankel said.
Yankel said regular state shoreline structure permits have taken much longer to get than Army Corps’ permits, with property owners usually needing both state and federal permits to build along the Lake Erie shoreline.
Landowners have often been afraid to go through the lengthy ODNR process for regular permits, Yankel said.
In addition to private lakefront landowners, coastal municipalities along Lake Erie have struggled to mitigate shoreline damage caused by record water levels and wave action.
Port Clinton City Beach was still closed as of Friday, more than two weeks after Mayor Mike Snider declared a state of emergency, with orange fencing still in place and several tree stumps visible where the city cut down trees adjacent to the beach.
Those trees were the victims of severe shoreline erosion.
Snider told The News-Messenger the city has reached out to several federal and state agencies, as well as private contractors, to address what Port Clinton can do to reinforce its shoreline and mitigate coastal flooding.
In conversations with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Snider said federal officials told him they’ve heard similar erosion and flooding concerns from most lakefront communities along Lake Erie and Lake Ontario, which also is experiencing record high water levels.
State Sen. Theresa Gavarone, R-Bowling Green, also attended the OLG meeting. She said she knew Port Clinton had been having issues this year with shoreline erosion and coastal flooding.
Gavarone noted that the Ohio Legislature had passed Senate Bill 51 last year, which expanded the scope of public improvements that may be funded and completed by a special improvement district (SID) to include shoreline improvement projects along Lake Erie.
Keith Sendziak, a biologist with the Army Corps of Engineers’ Buffalo office, told OLG members Lake Erie is forecast to come down a little as the summer progresses.
He acknowledged the lake levels will still be above average for the foreseeable future.
An Army Corps of Engineers’ weekly Great Lakes Water Level update posted Friday projected Lake Erie’s water levels will drop two inches by July 1.
The lake stood 72 centimeters (28.3 inches) above average May 24 and 5 centimeters (1.97 inches) higher than a record high level for May recorded in 1986.
Sendziak said the Army Corps offers nationwide permits on Lake Erie for maintenance and stabilization projects.
Source: thenews-messenger.com
