Big Challenges for Small Harbors
Low Great Lakes water levels are having a big impact on Michigan’s small harbors and the recreational boaters who use them. Some Michigan harbors have been all but closed by silted-in entry channels, and others are one storm event away from being rendered inaccessible.
Some 60 people – including state and federal legislators, harbormasters, harbor commissioners, business development personnel, township and village supervisors, city managers and representatives of harbor user groups – met in Lansing, April 29, 2008 to discuss the challenge of maintaining safe access to harbors. A primary issue is obtaining funds for dredging.
This was the third meeting of the Michigan Small Harbor Coalition. The group is comprised of communities (municipal units or combinations thereof) within whose jurisdiction is a federally authorized shallow draft harbor as identified by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. It is also supported by organizations, businesses and individuals who use small harbors and therefore support their needs and interests.
Michigan Sea Grant worked with the Great Lakes Commission and the Michigan Boating Industries Association to pull the coalition together and continues to provide technical and administrative support to the process
The Coalition’s goals are:
- To establish an annual dedicated appropriation that maintains Michigan’s harbor navigation channels and infrastructure requirements; and
- Develop ongoing recognition and support for harbors that will maximize their economic benefit, enhance quality of life and protect public safety.
There has also been discussion on expanding the initiative to include small harbors in all the Great Lakes states.
Perhaps the largest challenge to the people who represent Michigan’s small harbors – those harbors that are federally authorized for 14 feet of depth or less and have more recreational usage than commercial – is the federal appropriation process for securing funds to dredge critical access channels into these harbors.
Currently federal funds appropriated for Great Lakes harbor maintenance are prioritized for the large, deep draft commercial ports, such as Duluth or Detroit. Small harbors must rely upon their congressional representatives to add specific earmarks for dredging. That process consumes considerable energy and political capital, as each port must be identified individually during appropriation committee meetings in either/or both the House and Senate appropriation process and then defended during subsequent conference committee meetings between House and Senate committees.
While these small harbors may not be high priorities in the federal dredging equation, they are important local and regional economic engines. A 2007 study completed by the Great Lakes Commission reports direct and secondary impacts from boating to the Michigan economy to include $2.4 million in annual sales and over 34,000 jobs for a total value added of $975 million. Further, without adequate access to many of these small harbors, the loss of property values and subsequent loss in tax revenues would be devastating to the local economies and far surpass the spending needed to keep them viable. In recent years tragic events, such as the loss of three people boating out of Grand Marais in 2006 who could not be rescued because of a silted-in harbor, and the loss of a Chicago-to-Mackinac sailboat that grounded while attempting to seek refuge in Onekama Harbor in 2007, make the issue of safely dredged harbors even more urgent.
As Michigan transitions from its past manufacturing economy to a more diverse economy, the need to maintain and to develop our water resources is essential to our future quality of life and to our future economic viability. These are the goals of the Michigan Small Harbors Coalition.
See: Website
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