LEADERS COMMEMORATE CLINTON RIVER PROJECT

Disposal facility to be fixed to allow for Clinton River dredging

Leaders engaged with improving Macomb County’s waterways and blue economy gathered Monday to commemorate a $500,000 government project to take the first step in dredging the Clinton River.

Local, state and federal politicians and other community leaders who strive to protect Lake St. Clair and the Clinton River and its tributaries marked the receipt of the funds in a press conference held outside the massive storage facility off of Old North River Road in Harrison Township. It abuts the Mount Clemens Field Office of the state Department of Natural Resources.

U.S. Rep. John James, with assistance from fellow Republican county Public Works Commissioner Candice Miller, secured the allocation to repair and upgrade a Confined Disposal Facility, a 30-acre site operated by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers that takes in and stores dredged sediments from nearby waterways. It is one of 45 such sites in the Great Lakes region.

After that work is done, the river will receive a much-needed dredging to ease the ability of watercraft to traverse the river and access Lake St. Clair, a recreational haven in Southeast Michigan.

“This is extremely important for our environment, extremely

important for our future, extremely important for our economy and enjoyment,” James said.

Declining water levels, a developing sandbar and increased seaweed near the mouth of the river has made it more difficult for boats to gain access to Lake

St. Clair from the Clinton River, Miller said. Miller said the river was last dredged before she left Congress in 2017.

“We have got to get the dredging done,” Miller said. “But first we have to fix the CDF, and we needed the cash to do that, and that’s what we have here. It’s no secret the Clinton River has some contaminants in the river bottom that have been there our lifetime.

“The Army Corps of Engineers complained to the congressman and myself they couldn’t do this dredging project until after they maintained and did some critical work on this infrastructure here, the Confined Disposal Authority. The CDF has fallen into some bit of disrepair.”

County board Chair Don Brown said the county will avert an “economic disaster” due to the project.

“This is another winning project again that is going to, actually quite frankly, prevent an economic disaster from happening,” Brown said.

Steve Remias, a director on the Macomb County Chamber Board of Directors and part of

JAMESON COOK — THE MACOMB DAILY Several officials — including U.S. Rep John James and Macomb County Public Works Commissioner Candice Miller — participate in a ribbon-cutting ceremony to kick off a $500,000project by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to perform repairs to a federally operated Confined Disposal Facility in Harrison Township that will allow Clinton River dredging.

JAMESON COOK — THE MACOMB DAILY Jennifer Hill, executive director of the Clinton River Watershed District, is among several officials talking Monday following a press conference nearly under the Bridgeview bridge in Harrison Township commemorating a $500,000 federal allocation to repair a federally operated Confined Disposal Facility that will allow dredging of the Clinton River to take place.