Alcona group asks state for funding to build dual rock jetties at Black River mouth

ST. IGNACE, Mich. — The Black River Waterways Committee asked a House appropriations subcommittee on Friday for state money to design and build a pair of rock jetties at the mouth of the Black River in Alcona County, saying the structure would stop sand accretion that repeatedly makes the river unnavigable and risks boaters and local search-and-rescue response.

Steve Bisky, who testified for the committee, told the panel the Michigan Department of Natural Resources funded studies that concluded a dual rock-wall jetty is the best permanent solution and that, until the jetties are built, the DNR and Alcona Township must repeatedly dredge the river.

"The DNR dredges the mouth of the river three to four times a season at a cost of about $25,000," Bisky said. "If we put the money toward a jetty to stop the sand, they would no longer have to dredge."

Why it matters: Committee members were told the Black River provides local recreational boating, diving access to the Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary and important fish habitat. Testimony stressed public-safety implications: Alcona County’s sheriff wrote the DNR that his office’s Lake Huron rescue craft had been delayed or damaged when the river mouth was blocked by sand, and that a usable mouth provides a mid-lake refuge…