Eroded Islands Set for Restoration

A major dredging project in Green Bay is set to begin in October. The Army Corps of Engineers will dredge the shipping channel and use the material to restore habitat on three islands. The entire project will cost $20 million. When it is done, the Cat Islands will be restored and a four-mile wave barrier will be installed. The barrier will help protect more than 1,000 acres of shoreline wetlands.

Steven Check is the project manager with the Corps of Engineers. He says the Cat Islands were eroded years ago by high water and harsh storms. “There were a couple events in the 70’s that ended up washing most of the Cat Islands away.”

The project is being done in conjunction with habitat restoration associated with the PCB cleanup currently being done on the Fox River. Check says only clean sediment will be used to fill in the islands. Contaminated materials are shipped to a special landfill. “There’s a beneficial re-use of the clean dredged material that we pull out of the bay, and if we put it here we also do a complete ecosystem restoration of the entire wetland. And, we restore roughly 274 acres of islands that have washed away in the past that will support wildlife and aquatic ecosystem restoration.”

Check says all sediment pulled from the bay will be tested to ensure it is not laden with PCBs.