Buffer sand to be blocked, transported in the Buffalo Reef plane | News, Sports, Jobs

Garrett Neese/Daily Mining Gazette Stamp sands are seen on the shore at Gay, near the old Mohawk Mine, in a 2022 photo. A Buffalo Reef Task Force plan calls for building a pier to prevent migration later stamp sand reaches the reef, and the sands are excavated and moved to an inland site near Mohawk.

HOUGHTON — One of the administrators working on efforts to protect Buffalo Reef from buffer sand encroachment provided an overview and status update during Wednesday’s Wake Up Keweenaw presentation.

Bill Mattes, chief of the Great Lakes Section of the Great Lakes Indian Fish and Wildlife Commission, spoke about the ongoing project on the 2,200-acre reef, located in Grand Traverse Bay, downstream from the Gay Stamp Sands.

Nearly 23 million cubic meters of mine waste were initially deposited at Gay, near the Mohawk Mine. Over the years, approximately 10,000 to 20,000 cubic meters of sand have been reused to provide traction on winter roads. Much more – more than 90% – washed up offshore, where currents deposited it on the reef.

A task force of federal, tribal and state agencies formed in 2017 was tasked with developing a long-term management plan to protect the reef. In January, the task force selected a multi-phase plan that includes blocking the buffer sands and transporting them to an elevated site where they will be blocked from water. The public comment period on the proposal closed earlier this year.

Buffalo Reef provides an essential spawning ground for lake trout and whitefish. Buffer sand fills the spaces between the rocks and the reef.

“When the fish come in, they lay their eggs on the rocks, the eggs go down and the air, wind and waves bring in oxygen, and they hatch.” Mattes said. “The buffer sands are filling up there, so they have no place to go.”

Additionally, the copper in buffered sands is toxic to them, Mattes said.

The same thing happens on the native sand beach south of the reef. The beach is also a feeding area for juvenile whitefish, which feed on benthic invertebrates. These too are affected by copper.

“The sands are toxic for them, they contain copper,” Mattes said. “So we don’t find benthic invertebrates on the sand. Therefore, we do not find juvenile fish.

Without action, the reef would be covered; According to models predicted by 2025, 60% of the reef will be unsuitable for spawning. The sands would overtop Grand Traverse Bay, filling the harbor with sand and narrowing or closing the river mouth, Mattes said. This would lead to an increased risk of flooding.

Buffer sands also have negative consequences for downstream landowners, either by washing up on their beaches or covering native sand that is better able to dissipate wave energy.

Instead, he “rises the beach much harder and can cause flooding and damage to landowners”, Mattes said.

The first phase of the task force’s plan would include a new round of maintenance dredging and construction of a pier that would jut out into the bay into the buffer sands’ underwater path. As designed by the Army Corps of Engineers, it should be capable of preventing buffer sand encroachment for 50 years. Ideally, “Before they arrived, they would have left” Mattes said.

Later phases will see the removal of buffer sands from the south bank, the middle bank, then the north bank and a dune just offshore. This would happen between 2033 and 2044, according to a more than 25-year timeline presented by Mattes.

The buffered sands will be transported to a high-altitude site. One was identified near Mohawk, but the land was not purchased, Mattes said.

The EPA would monitor the sites and have wellheads to ensure the buffered sands don’t contaminate groundwater, Mattes said.

Before any of these phases can take place, they need to secure funding for the pier. Projects so far have been funded by the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative, in collaboration with the EPA, the Kewenaw Bay Indian Community and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

They also need to find an entity that would own the entity and maintain it. The federal government is not eligible, but a state, federal or tribal partner could, Mattes said.

High costs are a barrier. Acquisition of real estate – and road easements to the upland site – is another.

“Some land is owned by railroads that no longer exist, so it has been difficult to trace ownership,” Mattes said.

Michigan Technological University is also studying buffer sands on the shores of Lake Superior near the Freda area, Mattes said. There are more shorelines and higher energy waves, which ensures greater dispersion of the oil sands, he said.