The other day I was watching the evening news (at my mother's house in the Green Bay area) and a news story caught my attention. First of all, over the past half a century a series of small islands (known as the "Cat Islands") in Green Bay (the body of water, not the city) has undergone a slow but steady process of erosion. This is mostly due to rising water levels and severe storms within the bay. Secondly, every year the city of Green Bay must go through dredging, which is the digging of soil at the bottom of a river in order to, in this case, make room for large cargo ships that make their way through the bay and the channel. However, what is left over is a massive amount of soil that either settles into the bay or back into the channel.
The story covered a new project that is currently underway to essentially move all of that soil to the Cat Islands, not only to remove it from the channel, but to possibly re-establish several lost habitats for many species of birds, fish, turtles, amphibians, and invertebrates. This idea is great in theory and it would be fantastic to put the soil to good use. However, what is being ignored (and this was mentioned in the news story) is if the soil being used is actually clean, even though the project directors say it is. This is troublesome, because it is not a completely far-fetched idea that the soil would be dirty; after all, several hundred (if not thousands) of ships (both cargo and non-cargo) make their way through the channel and bay, leaving behind exhaust, oil, and sewage.
The movement of the sediment is scheduled for Summer of 2013.
Here is a link to the presentation all about the project: http://www.portofgreenbay.com/uploadedFiles/Cat%20Island%20Presentation.pdf
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