$9.9 Million Approved for Toledo-Lucas County Dredge Projects

State Sen. Gayle Manning has announced Ohio State Controlling Board approval of $9.9 million in capital funds for the Toledo-Lucas County Port Authority.

The Department of Natural Resources recently requested Controlling Board approval to release capital funds in the amount of $9,900,000 from the Healthy Lake Erie fund in SFY2019 to the Toledo-Lucas County Port Authority (Lucas County), City of Lorain (Lorain County), and City of Conneaut (Ashtabula County) for three dredge material reuse projects.

According to the Controlling Board, Toledo-Lucas County Port Authority will receive $1,900,000 for planning, design, and construction costs to upgrade the existing Facility 3 Confined Disposal Facility (CDF) owned and operated by the Port of Toledo.

The proposed project will raise the dike around the perimeter of the 235-acre Cell 1 area thereby increasing the effective contained area to an effective capacity of 6.8 to 7.5 million cubic yards of dredge material.

The General Assembly has worked tirelessly toward a cleaner Lake Erie through the funding of various water quality programs, and this is yet another step to do so,” said Sen. Manning.

The City of Lorain has won $4,000,000 for planning, design, permitting, and construction costs for the Black River Dredge Reuse Facility to be located on a 30-acre site within a larger reclamation facility owned by the City of Lorain near river mile 2.8 on the south bank of the Black River.

The facility will be designed to accept up to 150,000 cubic yards of dredged material from the Lorain Harbor Federal Navigation channel per year. The site is also located adjacent to a large industrial brownfield area where significant volumes of dredge material could be placed as a soil cap over the brownfield site.

The City of Conneaut’s $4,000,000 will be used for planning, design, permitting, and construction costs for the Conneaut Creek Dredge Material Facility to be located at the former Canadian National coal facility known as the “lower coal dock”.

The site is located south of the mouth of Conneaut Creek and is adjacent to the Conneaut Harbor Federal navigation channel. The facility will be designed to accept up to 75,000 cubic yards of dredged material from the Conneaut Harbor Federal navigation channel per year.

The site is also located adjacent to a brownfield area where significant volumes of dredged material could be placed as a soil cap over the brownfield site. Moreover, the proposed facility would be designed to provide sediment processing, soil blending, and other potential uses of the dredge material.