Great Lakes Aquatic Habitat News
The Newsletter of the Great Lakes
Aquatic Habitat Network and Fund
The Great Lakes Aquatic Habitat News is the newsletter of the Great Lakes Aquatic Habitat Network and Fund, published five times per year. The News is intended to provide a forum for the free exchange of ideas among citizens and organizations working to protect aquatic habitats in the Great Lakes Basin.
Volume 15, Number 3 • Fall 2007
Army Corps Facility Dike Breaks in West Erie
Grassroots Profile
By Sandy Bihn,Western Lake Erie Association
A confined disposal
facility in
M a u m e e
B a y /We s t e r n
Lake Erie
experienced a
30-foot wide
and 10 feet high
failure in its
earthen dike
early this August. The facility, known as
Grassy Island or Island, holds tons of
material dredged from the Toledo
shipping channel. Boaters alerted the
Coast Guard about the leaching from
the 150-acre facility, but the Army Corps
of Engineers and Ohio Environmental
Protection Agency took days to test the
waters and did not set up containment
booms to contain the leachate. Officials
stated that therewas no urgency to test
the leachate and that there was no
threat to public health.
This lack of urgency is despite the fact
that a 1974 Environmental Impact
Statement by the U.S. Army Corps of
Engineers categorized the sediments
disposed of at Grassy Island as heavily
polluted, with serious pollutants
including volatile solids, oil and grease,
iron, lead, and zinc as heavy in the
sediments disposed of at Grassy Island.
Grassy Island is located near a populated
area in Toledo known as Point Place.
This breach took place in the summer
when many people recreate with wave
runners, and wind surfers, so there is
contact with the waters that surround
Grassy Island.
Why would officials assume that leaching
is no problem and fail to take the
normal precaution of containing the
leachate and then testing to protect
public health and aquatic life?
For more information,
contact Sandy Bihn,
Executive Director/Waterkeeper,
Western Lake Erie Association,
419-691-3788 or visit
http://westernlakeerie.org/index.html.
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