COLUMBUS, OH - Sand dredged from Lake Erie's harbors and channels should be returned to the lake in a way that will nourish and protect the shoreline and increase habitat for aquatic wildlife, according to the Ohio Department of Natural Resources (ODNR).
For generations, sand and gravel dredged to maintain open channels and harbors was purposely hauled several miles into the lake and dumped in deep water where natural wave action could not wash it back to shore. Consequently, much of Ohio's 262-mile coastline suffers from eroded beaches and decreased natural shore protection.
To counter these losses, ODNR has long advocated a policy of returning dredged sand and gravel to shallower, near-shore waters in order to nourish and restore beaches and regain the shore protection and aquatic habitats they provide.
Restoration of Lake Erie's sandy beaches is a long-term coastal management goal for the state, said ODNR Director Sam Speck. We can make a great deal of progress toward this goal by returning dredged sand and gravel to near-shore areas, restoring the lake's natural beach-building system and benefiting our coastline for generations to come.
The narrow, segmented beaches of today's Lake Erie are a far cry from those encountered by the first pioneers to enter northeastern Ohio. When the first settlers of the Western Reserve came along the Ohio shore in 1796, they used the broad, sandy beach as a road.
As the Lake Erie coast was settled, large harbors were established at the major tributaries. To maintain harbor entrances, engineers built jetties to keep sand from washing into navigational channels.
As harbor structures were extended farther and farther into the lake, sand collected on just one side of the harbor. On the other side of the harbor, the shoreline became more sand starved and bluff erosion increased. In 1960, experts with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers estimated that 88,000 to 124,000 cubic yards of sand built up annually at Fairport Harbor in Lake County. That amount of sand would cover 16 to 22 football fields, 3 feet deep. Today, a map of the Lake Erie shoreline east of Cleveland shows large deposits of sand on the west side of harbor structures, said Don Guy, a geologist with ODNR's Division of Geological Survey.
At Fairport Harbor, as well as at dozens of large and small harbors along the shore, any sand dredged from navigational channels and inlets was dumped far out in the lake where it simply was left to lie on the bottom.
It would have been better placed closer to shore and returned to the beach-building system, said Jim Barchok of the Lake County Planning Commission.
Barchok, a geologist by training, said that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which oversees most Lake Erie dredging, had for many years required local communities to share the additional costs of redepositing sand near shore, thereby discouraging such action.
Now the Corps is working with Ohios Coastal Management Program and has amended that policy, Barchok said. Since the states approach encourages sand be deposited near shore, the Corps has altered contracting procedures to reduce the costs of near-shore disposal, significantly reducing the financial contribution required from local communities.
At Fairport, Eastlake, Conneaut, Rocky River, Sandusky and West Harbor, dredged sand has been successfully redeposited close to the shore in 2 to 10 feet of water. At that depth, waves can pick up the best beach-building particles and wash them toward land, Barchok said.
In the Village of Bratenahl near Cleveland and in some other lakeside communities, local residents have questioned near-shore disposal of sand because of concern about pollutants such as mercury and lead. Both Barchok and Guy are quick to relieve those concerns by saying all dredged sediment placed in a near-shore disposal site must meet standards of cleanliness set by both the Corps and the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency.
Sediment placed in Lake Erie must meet quality standards set by OEPA. Testing is conducted according to criteria established by the Corps and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Guy said.
Sediment is tested for arsenic, cadmium, chromium, copper, lead, mercury, nickel and zinc, as well as for other pollutants that might be associated with a particular location. In addition, the sediment is analyzed for grain size. Pollutants tend to be associated with small grain material that is unsuitable for beach building, Guy said.
Barchok noted that sand tends to be pollution free anyway. Pollutants do not bind to sand, he said.
Impoundment of sand and gravel by harbor structures and deep-water disposal has had long-term negative impacts on Ohio's lakeshore and beaches. By encouraging near-shore disposal of sand dredged from channels and harbors, ODNR is taking an important step toward restoring beaches along the Lake Erie shoreline.