The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is looking at ways to stop grass carp from spawning in the Sandusky River near Fremont, Ohio, and nearly 3,700 miles of rivers and tributaries connected to Lake Erie where they damage habitats, increase erosion, and threaten the economy.
The USACE Buffalo District, Great Lakes Fishery Commission, and Ohio Department of Natural Resources are sharing information about the project and different barriers that could be used to stop grass carp.
To minimize or eliminate the impact on native fish species in the river and not disrupt daily life for the people of Fremont, the barriers being considered are behavioral-only.
Read more about the project here.
Detailed scoping information is available for public comment through Dec. 11.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), Buffalo District and Erie Canal Harbor Development Corporation (ECHDC) celebrated completion of the 2023 construction season’s work on a new wetland ecosystem being built in Buffalo’s Outer Harbor.
USACE and its contractor, Michigan-based Ryba Marine Construction Co., placed bedding stone across the mouth of the abandoned Shipping Slip 3, forming the first layer of a submerged breakwater to contain material dredged from the Buffalo River and placed in the slip to create the base of the new ecosystem.
“The Corps of Engineers is excited to share this season’s progress on the Outer Harbor wetland project with Western New York,” said Lt. Col. Colby Krug, commander of the USACE Buffalo District. “The positive impact this project will have on generations of people, plants, and wildlife across the community is something I’m proud of, especially as a Buffalo native.”
“This $14.8 million initiative is that latest component of a two-decade, more-than $200 million, coordinated, multi-agency effort to take Buffalo’s greatest natural asset, its Lake Erie shoreline, and convert it from an inaccessible post-industrial wasteland into an interconnected system of parks and urban natural habitat, the acreage of which is roughly equal to New York City’s Central Park,” said Congressman Brian Higgins. “I thank the Erie Canal Harbor Development Corporation under the direction of Governor Kathy Hochul, and the Buffalo District of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers under the leadership of Lt. Col. Colby Krug for their leadership in advancing this important work.”
“It’s been exciting to watch the progress in creating Slip 3’s new wetland ecosystem,” said Mark Wendel, president of Erie Canal Harbor Development Corporation. “Directly adjacent to Wilkeson Pointe, where an extensive, year-and-a-half long improvement project is starting this fall, the Slip 3 project will help renew key elements of the aquatic habitat that New York State and Governor Hochul recognize are crucial to a vibrant waterfront.”
“Addressing legacy pollution from the Great Lakes and improving critical ecosystems is an investment in public health and our future,” said U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Regional Administrator Lisa F. Garcia. “EPA is proud to work with the partners through the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative, to improve and restore aquatic habitat along Buffalo’s waterfront area. This work will benefit all of Buffalo’s communities and the natural world for generations to come.”
In partnership with ECHDC, the overall $14.8 million project aims to reverse coastal wetland degradation in the Niagara River system and across the Great Lakes. Decades of industrial development and hardening of shorelines has diminished fish nursery and spawning habitats in these areas.
The project is being conducted in three phases – construction of the breakwater, placement of dredged material, and formation of aquatic and sub-aquatic habitat.
This season’s construction, which started in September and concluded on Oct. 19, included placement of 17,200 tons of bedding stone in Slip 3. The bedding stone is expected to displace silty sediment at the bottom of the slip and settle over the winter.
During the celebration, Krug, Higgins, Wendel, and USEPA Public Affairs Officer Mike Basile, along with members of the ECHDC Board of Directors, representatives of New York Governor Kathy Hochul’s office, New York State Assembly District 149, the Erie County Department of Environment and Planning, and the City of Buffalo Common Council contributed to the project’s current phase by ceremoniously tossing stones into the slip at the site of the breakwater.
USACE and Ryba Marine will resume construction in 2024, with placement of additional bedding stone, followed by 4.8 feet of underlayer stone and 7.2 feet of armor stone.
The completed breakwater will extend across the entire mouth of the slip, with a portion submerged to allow for connectivity to the Lake Erie and the increased health of the future wetlands. Construction of the breakwater (Phase 1) is expected to conclude in September 2024.
In the project’s second phase, approximately 285,000 cubic yards of sediment dredged from the Buffalo River over a six-year period (an estimated three cycles) will be placed in Slip 3 to create 6.7 acres of coastal wetland habitat. The first cycle of maintenance dredging used to contribute to the project is contracted to start in October 2024. The sediment is certified as clean by state and federal standards and approved for this beneficial use.
In the project’s third phase, planting of native species will include submerged and emergent aquatic vegetation that can compete with invasive species and provide high-quality aquatic habitat for both aquatic species and migratory/resident bird species. The new habitat will also include gravel beds, rock piles, root wads, logs, and existing dock piles to provide maximum habitat complexity and structure.
Project information and safety signage will be installed along Fuhrman Boulevard outside Slip 3 and neighboring Wilkeson Pointe to keep the public informed and help ensure safety at the site. Hazard marker buoys will be placed to mark where the breakwater stone has been placed since the entirety of the breakwater will be submerged until underlayer stone is placed next season.
Plans for habitat creation at the Outer Harbor used lessons learned from previous partnership between USACE and the City of Buffalo in the first successful beneficial use project on the Great Lakes – restoring a wetland ecosystem at Unity Island. Slip 3 was identified by a multiagency committee as a habitat management opportunity in the Niagara River Area of Concern.
The feasibility study for this project was 100% federally funded by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Great Lakes Restoration Initiative (GLRI). USACE and ECHDC executed a Project Partnership Agreement in January 2022 enabling the design and implementation phase, now underway. Design and implementation is cost-shared 65% Federal (USACE) and 35% Non-Federal (ECHDC with funding from the GLRI).
Based on the current USACE construction budget, the ECHDC total commitment over the course of the project will be $4,972,000 over a 12-year period. This funding is from the New York Power Authority, through relicensing agreements tied to the operation of the Niagara Power Project.
Renderings of the site are available at: https://esd.ny.gov/sites/default/files/ECHDC-slip-No3-images.pdf
More information about the USACE Buffalo District is available online at: https://www.lrb.usace.army.mil/.
The Buffalo District delivers world class engineering solutions to the Great Lakes Region, the Army and the Nation in order to ensure national security, environmental sustainability, water resource management, and emergency assistance during peace and war.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Buffalo District has awarded a $17.6 million contract to Mark Cerrone, Inc. to install approximately 23-acres of engineered non-permeable caps at the Formerly Utilized Sites Remedial Action Program, Seaway Site, Tonawanda, N.Y.
Construction of the engineered cap, designed to limit exposure at the site, will occur within areas A, B, and C, and is scheduled to begin no later than spring 2024.
The process will not require the removal of contaminated materials, but does include grading of the access roads, conducting surface water calculations and stormwater management, gas monitoring (including radon and decomposition gases), erosion resistance model and erosion control materials specifications, slope stability analysis, venting system design, planting of vegetative soils to limit erosion, and installation of composite engineered cap materials.
Protecting human health and the environment remains the Corps of Engineers’ highest priority. Throughout the process updates and timelines will be communicated frequently to ensure the public remains informed.
Additional information regarding the Seaway Site can be found on the project website at https://www.lrb.usace.army.mil/Missions/HTRW/FUSRAP/Seaway-Site/.
The Seaway Site is within the 100-acre Seaway Industrial Park located along River Road in the Town of Tonawanda, Erie County, New York, north of Buffalo and just south of the Niagara River. The site was operated as a landfill by Browning-Ferris Industries (BFI) through 1993. After ceasing operations, most of the landfill was capped by BFI in accordance with the requirements of the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (NYSDEC).
The Seaway Site was created when materials containing low levels of residual radioactivity were disposed of on the adjacent federal government leased Ashland 1 property. These radioactive residues were the result of activities conducted at the former Linde Site to support the nation’s nuclear weapons program. This material was later relocated by Ashland Oil to the Seaway Site Areas A, B, C, and the Ashland 2 Site.
Under FUSRAP, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) is cleaning up sites with contamination resulting from the Nation’s early atomic energy program. FUSRAP was initiated in 1974 to identify, investigate and, if necessary, clean up or control sites throughout the United States contaminated as a result of Manhattan Engineer District (MED) or early Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) activities. Both the MED and the AEC were predecessors of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE).
Please email fusrap@usace.army.mil or call 800-833-6390 (Option 4) for additional information. The Administrative Record for the Seaway Site contains documents that support the CERCLA process for the site. It is available for review electronically on the project website https://www.lrb.usace.army.mil/Missions/HTRW/FUSRAP/Seaway-Site/.
The Buffalo District delivers world class engineering solutions to the Great Lakes Region, the Army and the Nation in order to ensure national security, environmental sustainability, water resource management, and emergency assistance during peace and war.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Buffalo District is pleased to announce that it has awarded a $40 million contract to Enviro-Fix Solutions LLC for Niagara Falls Storage Site (NFSS) Remedial and Site Services.
The first task order was awarded on Aug. 4, 2023 for $11,984,341.90, which includes remediating contaminated media in accordance with the Record of Decision for the Balance of Plan (BOP) and Groundwater Operable Units (OU). This work is being carried out under the Formerly Utilized Sites Remedial Action Program (FUSRAP).
Selected Remedy:
The selected remedy in the Record of Decision for the Balance of Plant and Groundwater Operable Units (OUs) Niagara Falls Storage Site is the complete removal of contaminated media and off-site disposal at a properly permitted or licensed facility. Following completion of excavation and off-site disposal, the site would be remediated to levels suitable for industrial use (i.e., protective of construction, industrial, and maintenance workers, as well as adolescent and adult trespassers).
The major components of the selected remedy for the NFSS BOP and Groundwater OUs include:
Next Steps/Anticipated Schedule:
Site Services:
In the future, the USACE intends to utilize available contract capacity to support ongoing NFSS Interim Waste Containment Structure Disposal (IWCS) Remedial Design Activities. Activities may include environmental and geotechnical data collection and site infrastructure construction.
NFSS Project Information Website:
All documents (fact sheets, reports, video, etc.) related to the Niagara Falls Storage Site project can be found at:
https://www.lrb.usace.army.mil/Missions/HTRW/FUSRAP/Niagara-Falls-Storage-Site/.
Administrative Record:
All documents used during the decision-making process for FUSRAP activities at the NFSS site are available at:
The headquarters of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Buffalo District has re-located to the historic Hens & Kelly Building at 478 Main Street in the heart of the City Buffalo.
Moving to the new headquarters at the corner of Main and Mohawk Streets – now known as the Mohawk Building – marks the district’s return to the city’s central business district after 75 years.
“We’re thrilled to be part of the downtown community and the constant growth of Buffalo’s bustling Main Street corridor,” said Lt. Col. Colby Krug, USACE Buffalo District commander. “This modern space will give our team of professionals the best environment to work in so we can continue to provide the nation with the highest level of service possible.”
Members of the public, municipalities, government agencies, and other organizations needing to send mail or packages to the USACE Buffalo District should use the following mailing address:
US Army Corps of Engineers Buffalo District
478 Main Street
Buffalo, New York 14202-3278
Attention: Name/Office
Mail sent to the previous headquarters address within the last month will be forwarded to the new headquarters.
The district will maintain its presence at the Black Rock Lock Reservation for operation of the Black Rock Lock, its survey boat fleet, and logistical and technical support to its wide-ranging mission. All services provided to the nation and communities across the district’s area of responsibility in the lower Great Lakes continue uninterrupted.
A grand opening ceremony and tour of the new headquarters will be held in September.
More information about the USACE Buffalo District is available online at: https://www.lrb.usace.army.mil/.
The Buffalo District delivers world class engineering solutions to the Great Lakes Region, the Army and the Nation in order to ensure national security, environmental sustainability, water resource management, and emergency assistance during peace and war.
