Posted on March 16, 2022
A significant amount of sand dredged from Cow Creek has been placed back into Lake Huron.
Sarnia Construction Manager Robert Williams said it was placed onto the ice at the end of February.
“That gave us real estate to do some additional dredging,” said Williams. “We’ve taken a total of about 5,000 cubic metres of sand out of the creek, so we’ve got it (dredged) right now to the clay. We’ve got about as much out of there as we can get out of there.”
The waterway, commonly known as Perch Creek, has struggled with blockages from extra sediment for the past few years.
The in-water disposal was done on the west side of the outfall structure, which allows the material to continue westward in the water as it would naturally if the structure didn’t exist.
“We still have about 2,500 cubic meters of sand that we have to get back in the lake. Our permit allows us to put it back in the lake in certain volumes, but after March 15 we can’t really do any more work and then we would be looking at proceeding with further disposal of the sand in late summer. So, after July 15, which is the timing window for fish habitat spawning.”
Williams said the work has stayed within budget.
“We originally had a budget of $50,000 to start the engineering and the testing and the permitting and then we had an additional $300,000 capital budget set aside. At this point we’re less than two thirds of it used.”
Williams said the lake level has dropped considerably, with the average in February being 0.7 metres lower than the high levels recorded in 2020.
But, he added that the water level of Lake Huron continues to be higher than the long-term average and continues to be a concern along the shoreline.
