Spat over sediment dumping remains unsettled

By JOHN SEEWER

Associated Press

TOLEDO

A long-running battle over dumping sediment dredged from Cleveland’s harbor into Lake Erie still doesn’t seem settled even after Congress weighed in on the debate.

Ohio’s environmental regulators and the federal agency that maintains the lake’s shipping channels have been locked in an argument for years over what to do with the tons of mud, soil and sand.

And both sides don’t appear to be budging.

Congress in late December approved a bill that included a stipulation preventing the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers from dumping hazardous dredged material in the lake without meeting requirements set by the state.

The director of the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency, Craig Butler, said Congress has now joined the Legislature and regulators in telling the federal agency that it can’t dispose of the sediment in the lake if it’s not safe.

“I don’t understand how the Corps cannot clearly get that message,” he said.

Army Corps spokesman Bruce Sanders said Tuesday that the agency has no plans to put dredged sediment in the lake without a water-quality certification.

But the head of the agency’s district based in Buffalo, New York, still believes some of the sediment from the Cuyahoga River is safe to put in the lake based on its scientific research – an assertion disputed by the Ohio EPA.

“Our proposal is safe for drinking water, protective of the environment, and in the best interest of the American taxpayer,” Lt. Col. Karl Jansen, commander of the Buffalo district, wrote in a letter last November.