A federal judge has denied the Ohio EPA and Port of Cleveland’s request to force the Army Corps of Engineers to dredge the Cuyahoga River’s shipping channel.
Judge Donald Nugent says he cannot grant the preliminary injunction request on technical grounds, saying the filing is missing information. The EPA and the Port asked the judge to overrule the Army Corps which says dredging may not be needed this year because there is not enough sediment built-up to hamper shipping. Port of Cleveland official Jade Davis says some freighters are scraping the river bed in certain places. And he says they will re-file for a preliminary injunction.
“Essentially we do not see this as a stop. The Corps is 100 percent right and you guys are wrong, we don’t see it as that. We see it honestly as we need to readjust and move forward.”
The Army Corps would not comment because the case is still pending. The Corps has said if it does dredge, the sediment is safe to dump into the open waters of Lake Erie instead of into more expensive on-shore containment facilities. The Ohio EPA says the material is too toxic for open lake disposal.
