Use for river, bay dredgings to be forum topic

The public is invited to a free, four-hour session Thursday about potential markets for millions of pounds of muck the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers digs up each year so that large cargo ships can continue to ply through Toledo-area water.

For years, the corps has spent roughly $20 million a year to dredge 4 million cubic yards of sediment from Great Lakes harbors and channels, the equivalent of 400,000 truckloads of soil.

Nearly a quarter of that comes from the Toledo shipping channel in the Maumee River and western Lake Erie's Maumee Bay, the shallowest and most heavily dredged part of the Great Lakes.

From 1 to 5 p.m., officials will seek ideas from the public on how best to keep the shipping channel from filling in so quickly with more sediment runoff. Most of it comes from northwest Ohio and northeastern Indiana farms.

Officials also are looking for markets for the dirt, such as product manufacturing, fishing reefs, or strip-mine reclamation. The majority of it gets dumped into Lake Erie's North Maumee Bay, one of the region's most productive fish nurseries. Biologists claim the turbidity it creates hurts the region's $7 billion fishery.

The session will be at the Toledo Maritime Center, 1701 Front St. in Toledo's Marina District. It is being presented by the Great Lakes Commission, the Ohio Lake Erie Commission, and the Toledo-Lucas County Port Authority, with funding from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. For more information, contact the Ohio Lake Erie Commission at 419-245-2514.