February 16, 2005

On February 7, the Department of Environmental Quality made available for public comment the draft Section 401 Water Quality Certification for the upper Saginaw River navigational dredging project and the associated Dredged Materials Disposal Facility. The public comment period ends March 7, 2005. Comments submitted on the draft Certification in November – December 2004 do not need to be resubmitted. The draft Certification was expanded from the previous draft to include conditions related to dredging activities and contains limits, monitoring requirements, and other operation conditions to ensure that the dredging activities and discharge comply with Michigan Water Quality Standards.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers proposes to dredge material from the upper Saginaw River federal navigation channel with disposal at a proposed DMDF located in Saginaw and Bay Counties. The DMDF is designed to hold 3.1 million cubic yards of material to be dredged over a minimum period of 20 years. A maximum of 1.29 million gallons per day of sediment dewatering water, along with an unspecified amount of storm water, is authorized to be discharged to the Saginaw River for a two week period of time, annually. Requests for copies of the expanded draft Certification, the fact sheet, or the antidegradation demonstration should be directed to Rosalie Mascho, Water Bureau, Department of Environmental Quality, P.O. Box 30273, Lansing, MI 48909, or they can be obtained from the Internet at http://www.michigan.gov/deqwater.

Editor’s note: DEQ news releases are available on the department’s Internet home page at www.michigan.gov/deq.

Revised February 16, 2005 by Pat Watson