Sandusky begins work on wetlands project

SANDUSKY — Sandusky has begun construction on a long-awaited wetlands project on the west side of the Cedar Point Causeway, providing a new home for wildlife, like birds and fish. Several years of planning went into the Cedar Point Causeway Wetlands, a 30-acre project, and construction is expected to take place over five years with tinkering and monitoring taking another 10 years, said Aaron Klein, Sandusky's public works director. Funding the construction and renovation of wetlands has been a major initiative of H2Ohio, the DeWine administration's clean water program, and many wetlands are being built on the shore of Lake Erie or in streams that feed into the lake. Wetlands have been shown to be effective in acting as natural filters to help make Lake Erie cleaner, removing dirt and some of the phosphorus that helps feed the harmful annual algal blooms in the lake during summertime. The DeWine administration has been releasing periodic updates on the wetlands program to highlight projects that are being carried out. For example, it announced last month that $3 million of grant funds are being given out for wetlands projects in the Ohio River basin. The state's wetlands program is being carried out by the Ohio Department of Natural Resources. While the state is funding many other wetlands projects, the city's project to build a wetlands from scratch on the shore of the lake using dredged materials is unique, Klein said. "This is the first of its kind on the Great Lakes, which to me is really exciting," Klein said. "It's kind of cool Sandusky is trying to be a leader in water quality." Klein said the new wetlands are being put in just south of Cedar Point's overflow parking lot, on the western side of the Cedar Point Causeway, north of the causeway's main bridge. It's about 1,600 feet wide and extends about 800 feet from the shoreline. Mark Schaffer Excavating and Trucking in Norwalk — a site preparation business that carries out projects in Ohio, Pennsylvania, Kentucky, Indiana and Michigan — has been doing work at the site since November. Work is being done on the exterior perimeter break wall, made of rock, that will contain the wetlands, Klein said. This fall, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers will dredge Sandusky's harbor and will pump the dirt it takes from the bottom of the lake into the wetlands, Klein said. The Corps of Engineers is no longer allowed to follow its former practice of simply dumping dredged materials back into Lake Erie, so the wetlands project provides a place to deposit the materials, Klein said. Last year, the federal agency had planned to dredge Sandusky's harbor, but the work was postponed a year because the wetlands project was not ready, the agency explained in its annual report about dredging in Lake Erie during 2021. The dredged material will be allowed to solidify, and next year or the year after, more dredged material will be pumped in. After a couple of years, the city will go back in to reshape and modify the project, providing a home for birds and other wildlife, Klein said. The Army Corps of Engineers' work this year will take place after Labor Day, Klein said. "We're trying to avoid the tourist season," he explained. Construction is expected to take about five years, and monitoring of the site will go on for about another 10 years, Klein said. For example, the city will have to track whether invasive species are getting into the wetlands and competing with native plants and animals, he said. At the same time, the idea is to allow "Mother Nature" to do much of the work of determining how the wetlands will take shape, Klein said. Klein said planning for the project began back in 2017, so the wetlands project is by far the project he's worked on that is taking the most amount of time. Klein said the project will cost about $3.6 million with much of the funding coming from Ohio's Health Lake Erie Fund. The Great Lakes Restoration Initiative, a federal program to clean up the Great Lakes, put in $1 million to cover the cost of the work being carried out by the Army Corps of Engineers, Klein said. Other than staff time, the city has not had to put money into the project, he said. If the work on the wetlands project goes well, the city will look at expanding it, Klein said. The wetlands project isn't the only city project that has benefited from Great Lakes Restoration Initiative Funding. Initiative money also was used to rebuild the Jackson Street parking lot in downtown Sandusky, using permeable asphalt that absorbs rain rather than just allowing all of the water to wash into the lake. This money also was used for improvements to Lions Park in Sandusky. Klein said the city doesn't have any current applications in for more Great Lakes Restoration Initiative funding, but the city is aware that the money is available for any project that has an impact on the environment. Klein said the city is keeping Cedar Point officials informed about the wetlands project and gave a briefing to them to provide an update. The city has worked closely with federal and state officials to plan the work and put the project together, Klein said. For example, Scudder Mackey, chief of Ohio's Office of Coastal Management, which is located in Sandusky, worked hard to obtain funding and get all of the various agencies working together, Klein said. "It's really a pilot project in the Great Lakes," Klein said. "It hasn't been done before." If the project is a success, it could be replicated in other locations in the Great Lakes, Klein said. The Sandusky city commission deserves credit for providing solid backing for a project that aims to improve water quality in Lake Erie, Klein said. "In other cities, they say no, we don't have money and time and effort to do that, we're going to do roads," he explained.