Plans weighed to rebuild barrier at Hillman Marsh
Conservation authority would need government help with $10M project
Plans have been developed to rebuild a vanished barrier that had protected Hillman Marsh from the powerful waters of Lake Erie — but the required work carries a price tag of at least $10 million.
On Feb. 15, the Essex County Conservation Authority will consider three proposed concepts that begin with an extensive, yearlong engineering study, but the actual restoration that would build a new dike near what is known as barrier beach, would require funding from the provincial and federal governments, said Wayne King, a lifelong resident of the Hillman Marsh area and a member of Hillman Marsh restoration committee.
“Where the barrier beach has been washed away and breached, now Lake Erie and Hillman Marsh are one and the same,” said King.
The marsh is now just a bay of the lake, he said.
That causes two problems. First, when the wind blows the water out of the marsh, it leaves a barren landscape that results in the death of aquatic life. That occurred on Dec. 23, and again in January, killing many fish and turtles, said King.
But the lack of a barrier between Hillman Marsh and Lake Erie also means that the only thing protecting hundreds of houses and thousands of acres of Leamington farmland is a clay berm around the marsh that is not designed to withstand the powerful pounding waves of Lake Erie when the water sweeps in from the lake.
If the water was to breach the berm, the farmland and houses on the other side sit about eight to 10 feet below the elevation of the marsh, so enormous tracts of land would be completely flooded, said King. He's used the marsh for recreational pursuits — hunting, camping and swimming — since he was a child.
“It was a magical place when I was a kid,” said King, a founding member of the Leamington Shoreline Association. “It was just teeming with wildlife and fish … all you could catch.”
The erosion of the barrier between the two bodies of water has been going on for years, but it has now disappeared completely, leaving a 460-metre gap that effectively joins Lake Erie and Hillman Marsh.
The new, roughly $10-million plan to restore the barrier farther in the marsh replaces an earlier estimate of $18 million to rebuild the barrier beach dike in the previous location, said King.
The new location is shallower, and so would require less material.
The Town of Leamington manages the drainage infrastructure at the far end of the wetland, but it was “never really anticipated to receive open lake waves,” said Kevin Money, ERCA'S director of infrastructure.
The Town of Leamington is responsible for the drainage infrastructure and has its own plan to address that, he said.
“The other issue has to do with our local environment and water quality and biodiversity and that, for us, is the primary concern. It has to do with the management of that wetland.”
The barrier requires co-operation among various levels of government but “everybody is in support of it,” said Money.
A public consultation before Christmas sought ideas on how to address the issue. That input and three possible concepts for restoration will be presented to ERCA'S board of directors next week.
Taking no action would result in continued loss of biodiversity, a decline in water quality, further erosion around barrier beach, habitat loss, increased wave agitation, increased risk of invasive species, significant economic damage, possible structural damage to the berm and possible flooding of the farmland and neighbouring communities, according to a report on ERCA'S website.
Money said the restoration committee includes representatives from the University of Windsor, the federal Department of Fisheries and Oceans, Ontario's Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry and the Ministry of the Environment, Conservation and Parks.
An existing grant is available from the federal government to protect wetlands and there is “optimism” around that source of funding, he said.
The province has already supplied $500,000 for preliminary work. Lake Erie's behaviour in the area needs to be understood before work can begin, Money said.
Whatever is done must be able to withstand “not just today's lake environment in terms of water elevation, as well as wave climate, but the projected elevations and wave climate and the intensity of storms under climate change,” said Money.
King is optimistic after years of degradation around the barrier, there will be action.
“ERCA has really stepped up to the plate … and they really look like they're bound and bent to do it right,” he said.