Berrien County says preliminary EGLE permit clears path for St. Joe River dredging; Corps sign-off expected

Dan Fetti, a Community Development Department staff member, told the Berrien County Board of Commissioners on Jan. 23 that the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy (EGLE) has issued a preliminary dredging permit for work in the St. Joe River near the marina and Harbor Isle area and that U.S. Army Corps of Engineers sign-off is expected within days.

The permit application was submitted last May; the preliminary authorization allows mechanical and hydraulic dredging and initially authorizes up to 65,000 cubic yards of material in the first two years and an additional 15,000 cubic yards in years three through five. Fetti said the county is the permit holder and will oversee compliance and required reporting to state and federal agencies.

The permit includes limits and conditions. Fetti said dredging cannot occur during the spring spawning window and noted a specific seasonal prohibition: “You can't perform any dredging from May to June 30.” He described two disposal methods covered by the permit: onshore dewatering (stockpiling material to dry before upland placement) and hydraulic dredging (creating a slurry to pump material to beach nourishment sites). Fetti said hydraulic pumping to Lions Park Beach is cost-advantaged — roughly half the per‑yard cost of mechanical methods in his examples — but requires more Corps review and infrastructure to place the material.

Why it matters: marinas, commercial fishing boats and recreational boaters in the St. Joe River have long sought dredging to maintain navigable channels. Fetti emphasized the county will not underwrite dredging operations going forward: “Berrien County is not paying for river dredging anymore,” he said, and urged communities and stakeholders to organize funding and permitting mechanisms.

Board members pressed staff on next steps. Fetti said the Corps is completing a Section 408 review and that a newly required mussel-survey and relocation plan for federally protected mussels is a complicating factor not present in older projects. He said the county will seek DNR (Michigan Department of Natural Resources) cooperation to pre-screen areas likely to lack mussel habitat to avoid a full survey for smaller, near-term dredging requests. Fetti added that the county must supervise any dredging performed under its permit and that post-dredge reporting will be required.

Fetti also described temporary, small shoreline stockpile sites the county has permission to use and said that hydraulic placement is preferable where feasible because onshore storage space is limited. He reminded the board that cost differences can be substantial: mechanical dredging examples cited ranged from about $35–$60 per cubic yard, while hydraulic methods could be about $20 per cubic yard depending on logistics.

Fetti said county staff drafted articles of incorporation last May to help communities form a harbor authority to coordinate and fund dredging and related shoreline work. He said Benton Harbor and other local governments have recently revived interest and that a local authority would be the likely long-term vehicle to levy assessments or otherwise collect fees to finance ongoing maintenance. When asked whether the county would recreate a county-level harbor authority, Fetti said the county lacks land‑use regulatory and independent tax-assessment authority and would be limited to administrative support or contract arrangements with communities.

Next steps listed by staff included final Corps sign-off, coordination with marina owners who want to pursue dredging this spring, DNR habitat pre-screening to narrow mussel-survey needs, and continued outreach to municipalities about forming a harbor authority to coordinate funding and assessments.

Board members and staff will return to the issue as the Corps response and local authority organizing progress.