Senators Stabenow, Levin Announce Funding for Great Lakes Dredging

U.S. Senators Debbie Stabenow and Carl Levin, both D-Mich., today announced that the Army Corps will distribute $25 million for Great Lakes navigation projects, including funding to help address the backlog of dredging projects in the Great Lakes.

Last month, Great Lakes Task Force Co-chairs Levin and Sen. Mark Kirk, R-Ill., led a bipartisan letter from Great Lakes senators, including Stabenow, to leaders of the Army Corps of Engineers. The letter urged the Army Corps to allocate additional funding for Great Lakes harbor maintenance from the $200 million in national funding provided in the FY14 omnibus bill, which Congress approved in January.

"Making sure that our harbors and waterways are properly dredged and maintained is absolutely critical to supporting Michigan's shipping, boating and tourism industries," said Sen. Stabenow. "This is much-needed funding that will go a long way to supporting our economy and thousands of jobs across our state."

"The failure to provide adequate funds for harbor dredging has created a crisis in which many Great Lakes harbors are becoming so choked with silt that they are increasingly unusable," said Levin. "This funding will provide assistance to harbors across the Great Lakes region, including several of the most severely impacted harbors in Michigan."

Following is the list of Michigan projects that will receive funding:

Black River, Port Huron, MI - Dredging
Cheboygan Harbor, MI - Dredging
Grand Haven Harbor, MI - Additional dredging - inner harbor *
Leland Harbor, MI - Dredging
Menominee Harbor, MI and WI - Dredging
Monroe Harbor, MI - Additional dredging *
Saginaw River, MI - Additional dredging *
St. Joseph Harbor, MI - Dredging
Detroit River, MI - CDF fill management activities
St. Mary's River, MI - Soo asset renewal
St. Mary's River, MI - Hydropower Access bridge and duct bank to hydropower plant

* "Dredging" projects are new projects not previously funded in the FY14 omnibus appropriations bill. "Additional dredging" projects were previously included in the bill and will receive additional funds on top of what was previously allocated.