DREDGING AREA—The City of Peshtigo received notification that the City has been awarded a grant to dredge a portion of the Peshtigo River. The area will be from the mouth of Trout Creek to the Badger Park beach, and upstream in Trout Creek 100 yard from the bridge. Photo Shows part of the area to Badger Park beach. Approximately 100,000 cubic yards will be removed.

City Gets $358,000 Grant To Dredge Peshtigo River

City of Peshtigo received the good news Tuesday, July 10 that their application to the Federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for a Great Lakes Restoration Initiative Grant to pay for dredging the beds of Trout Creek and the Peshtigo River has been approved. With the help of State Representative John Nygren of Marinette, city officials learned that the EPA has awarded them $358,000 to pay for the work.

Formal notification of the award has not yet been received, but plans are going forward on the strength of verbal assurances. Alderman Cathi Malke, who chairs the city’s Parks and Recreation committee, was pleased and amazed that their efforts to get the grant were successful. She said this year the EPA gave only five grants in each category, and the grant area includes the entire Great Lakes watershed, which means all tributaries from which the waters eventually end up on one of the Great Lakes. Alderman Mike Behnke said the agency only had a total of $2.5 million allocated for dredging.

The grant award means that the long-awaited dredging can become a reality this summer provided federal, state and city agencies and officials move forward at full speed.

The timing could be ideal. The river and creek beds are now mostly dry land. Waters of the Peshtigo River above the Wisconsin Public Service (WPS) dam in the city are currently drawn down for reconstruction of the old Hwy. 41 bridge that connects the east and west sides of the city, and for repairs to the dam. WPS says that is not likely to happen again in Peshtigo for at least half a century

The hitch is that the drawdown permit issued by the Federal Energy Regulating Commission (FERC) requires water levels in the river to be restored gradually between Aug. 15 and Sept. 15 to prevent damage to reproduction by the Blanding Turtle. Unless something changes the dredging permit will not be received in time to clean up the silt before water levels are back to normal, which will probably double the cost.

The successful EPA grant application was prepared by Behnke with ample assistance from Marinette County Conservationist Greg Cleereman and Water Resource Specialist Chuck Druckrey. Behnke said much of the information they used in the application was drawn from a 2002 study done on aquatic invasive species that were seriously clogging the river, particularly Eurasian Milfoil. That study included recommendations for weed harvesting, which has been done repeatedly, and recommended dredging as a way to moderate the heavy weed growth that has nearly destroyed the Badger Park Beach and interferes with boating enjoyment on the flowage, particularly for owners of riverbank properties where weed infestation is heaviest.

An aquatic plant survey done last year by Cleereman and Druckrey also determined that removing silt from the river and creek beds would do much to alleviate the weed problem.

The hitch is that the grant money will pay for roughly twice as much dredging while the river is drawn down than it will when water is at normal depths, but apparently it will take at least 30 days to get the necessary dredging permit from the DNR. By that time, unless a drawdown extension is obtained, river levels will be going back up.

Hopes for dredging have been put forward in Peshtigo and then dashed for at least a decade, possibly two.

Peshtigo Parks and Recreation Committee had already scheduled a meeting for Thursday, July 12, but when news of the grant award came through the agenda was expanded to lay plans for going forward quickly with the project to use the grant in the best ways possible.

It was a high powered meeting. DNR Great Lakes Sediment Specialist Jim Killian drove up from Madison, along with Cheryl Bougie, Sediment and Water Quality Data Coordinator from Green Bay. Also on hand were Peshtigo Mayor Al Krizenesky, aldermen Behnke, Malke and Mary Lock, plus Director of Public Works George Cowell, Druckrey, three WPS representatives, Peshtigo Town Chair Herman Pottratz, and several local residents from the City and Town of Peshtigo.

Town of Peshtigo residents Russ Marten and Douglas Waechli expressed hope they could piggy-back with the city for some dredging they would like done in the river below the dam. He described the area as being about 300 feet by 100 feet, with four feet of silt to be removed, for a total of about 5,100 cubic yards. Malke sympathized, but said the city’s grant application had specified locations of the proposed dredging, and the money awarded would be just enough to do the job in the area described and had to be used for that purpose. She noted a committee now has been formed in hopes that the city and town can work together on similar projects in the future.

Behnke said he, Cleereman and Druckrey worked much of the winter on the grant application and submitted it as soon as the application period opened this spring. Normally that would been in February, but this year forms were not available until May. The application was submitted on May 24, the earliest date possible.

They also applied for a DNR dredging permit in May, but that application was returned by DNR Water Quality Specialist Robert Rosenberger, Peshtigo, about two weeks ago because it included no results for bore testing of the river and creek bottoms to determine what chemicals and contaminants it might contain. Issuance of a DNR dredging permit requires a 30-day comment period, and Rosenberger reportedly told them the comment period would not start until he had a complete application in hand. That information was confirmed by Killian at the July 12 meeting.

The dredging area described in the grant application extends upstream along the west bank of the flowage from the mouth of Trout Creek to the Badger Park Beach, and upstream in Trout Creek 100 yards from the bridge on Emery Ave. Plans call for removing approximately 100,000 cubic yards of material from the bed of the flowage while the river is drawn down, with a bull dozer to be used where the bottom is firm enough, and a back hoe to be used in Trout Creek. Material is to be temporarily stockpiled near shore before it is hauled to an upland site owned by the city.

“Research by Marinette County Land & Water Conservation Division (LWACD) has shown that due to the natural staining, that few aquatic plants grow in water deeper than six feet. As much as possible, within the project area, material will be removed to create depths between six and eight feet.” All the land adjacent to the proposed dredging area is owned either by the City of Peshtigo or Peshtigo School District. Silt was reported to be 4 1/2 feet deep at the mouth of Trout Creek.

“The increasing density of Eurasian Milfoil and associated filamentous algae in the project area has made navigation, fishing, swimming and other activities very difficult if not impossible. Swimming at the Badger Park Beach and fishing along the west shore have greatly decreased in recent years due to EWM,” the dredging application states.

It goes on to say that the schools adjacent to the flowage, particularly Peshtigo Elementary, try to use the flowage for phy ed activities such as canoeing, kayaking and fishing, and the LWCD has helped the school obtain fishing equipment which is now seldom used because the flowage next to the school is unfishable. Canoes the LWCD has provided are under utilized because waters adjacent to the schools are clogged with weeds and by midsummer, “the area smells and is impassible.”

“We’re not out to break the bank,” Killian said when asked what tests of river bottom material would be required. He said they can trim down the requirements, and make them specific to the watershed, perhaps only test for heavy metals and pesticides. He said they need to find out what contaminants are present so they know where the dredged materials need to go once they are removed from the river.

He said if there are no contaminants the material can be used as fill. Otherwise, it might need to be landfilled, as it is considered a solid waste, or if there is severe contamination it could need to be treated as hazardous waste. He said the law was written for much larger dredging projects, such as keeping channels open for shipping lanes in far larger bodies of water.

They also need to figure the chemical balance and discover if there are buried contaminants that dredging will stir up and reactivate.

Behnke suggested it is in Peshtigo’s favor that there is no industry upstream.

Bougie felt for the 100,000 cubic yards of material involved in this dredging perhaps six test samples would be sufficient.

Druckrey asked what type of equipment is required for the sampling, and learned that only a stainless steel bucket is necessary, as long as it is cleaned between samples. Druckrey then said he would take the samples and arrange for the tests.

There was talk of ways to speed up the process.

Killian suggested if they work quickly they could have the samples taken by Tuesday, and estimated the cost would be in the neighborhood of $12,000. That estimate was later proved to be far on the high side. At a special meeting Thursday, July 19 Council will be asked to spend $3,112.50 for testing by Pace Analytical Services, and approval is expected.

Krizenesky asked if they could apply for the dredging permit before test results are received, and was told that Rosenberger had said it needed to be a complete application before the 30-day comment period could start.

“We each have a very small role in a very big permit,” Killian commented.

“If we had known about the need for samples earlier, they would have been done,” Malke declared. “That 30-day waiting period is going to kill us!”

Druckrey said he also had not known the test bores were needed.

“We’re not here to stand in the way of the project, we’ll streamline it any way we can,” Killian replied.

The WPS engineer said they have nothing to do with the dredging permit, but they are responsible for the drawdown permit. He said they would determine cost of the extension to them in terms of lost production as soon as possible, perhaps even by Monday. He said that cost would have to be paid by the city, as it would not be fair to pass it along to other WPS customers.

He stressed that they can only apply for one extension, “We can’t go back a second time...Whatever date we set, the water has to be back by then.” He felt if the DNR and the EPA’s Fish and Wildlife people agree to the extension despite the Blanding’s Turtle concerns, chances are FERC will give them the extension.

He said to assist Lunde, the bridge contractor, by starting to refill the flowage on Aug. 15 according to plan, but then halting the water level rise at three feet below normal, and keeping it there until Sept. 9, when the six-inch increase per day will resume until normal water levels are reached.

After the meeting, Behnke praised the work of Druckrey and Cleereman, and there was no way a small city like Peshtigo could have assembled all the application documentation without their help. He also praised Krizenesky, who he said had worked tirelessly by telephone, contacting people in a successful attempt to get the project through. Malke echoed his sentiments, and also praised the work Behnke had done as the member of the Parks and Recreation Committee assigned to spearhead the application.

In other business at the meeting, Malke said they will be fine with the $192,057 remaining in the budget for Riverfront Park improvements, and a contract for that amount was approved with Alfredson Brothers Construction of Menominee, who submitted the low bid for the work. She and Behnke voted to recommend that Council approve the contract proposal as amended to fit their budget.

After finishing regular business, committee members and guests walked the river front area where the proposed dredging is to take place.

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