NEWS

Permits, tests still stall Ballville Dam project

Daniel Carson
The News-Messenger
Questions still remain about plans to remove the Ballville Dam.

FREMONT- City officials hope the dormant Ballville Dam removal project will finally begin this fall.

But they're still waiting for a needed U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Section 404 permit, as well the publishing of a supplemental environmental impact statement (EIS) in the Federal Register.

The draft version of the EIS is slated to be released this month. Once the draft is published, there will be a 45-day public comment period.

"I'm hopeful we should receive the final EIS by Sept. 1," Mayor Danny Sanchez said.

Bob Gross, the mayor's executive assistant, said the city recently participated in conference calls with several state and federal agencies about the dam-removal project and the sediment trapped behind the dam.

Included on those calls were representatives from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Gross said.

He and Sanchez said the city's understanding was that the Army Corps had no further issues or problems with the sediment behind the dam, based on additional testing done in 2015.

In an email Tuesday, Andrew A. Kornacki, public affairs chief of U.S. Army Corps of Engineers-Buffalo District, said that due to pending litigation, all questions on the dam and sediment testing should be referred to the U.S.Department of Justice.

The Ohio Sierra Club filed a federal lawsuit against the city and federal agencies in July, asserting the city did not conduct enough tests to determine the impact of dam's removal. But the Sierra Club put its suit on pause in October while awaiting results of further testing of the sediment behind the dam.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers was named along with former mayor Jim Ellis and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service as defendants in the Sierra Club lawsuit.

Voters approved removal of the Ballville Dam last November, but the work has not begun.

Jen Miller, the Ohio Sierra Club's executive director, said this week that the lawsuit is still stayed, but could be reopened by her organization after the final supplemental EIS is released.

"We'll take a look at it and see if it's thorough enough," Miller said.

Sanchez said the city has done everything it can to answer questions about the sediment behind the dam. He said he would be shocked to find out if there were any additional issues with the sediment.

Ellis said in December the Army Corps, which has not indicated if or when it will issue a Section 404 permit that is required before the project can begin, could not issue the permit until testing had been completed under the terms of the stay on the federal lawsuit.

The Army Corps of Engineers had asked the city in August to conduct further testing and get results before it would consider issuing the Section 404 permit that would allow the project to get started.

Ellis said the Army Corps and U.S. Fish and Wildlife had been conducting separate environmental reviews from test data taken from the sediment.

While the city waits for the EIS, officials learned last month that they received an extension on a $2 million federal grant to fund dam removal.

The deadline to use the $2 million grant from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for dam removal was extended to Sept. 30, 2018.

The grant had been scheduled to expire on Sept. 30, 2016, and city officials had been concerned that if Fremont lost the entire grant they would be forced to find other funds to replace the $2 million, which had been dedicated to dam removal.

Sanchez said he didn't think the city's contract with MWH Contractors to remove the dam would be affected by the project's delays. Fremont City Council approved a $1.6 million guaranteed maximum price amendment with MWH Constructors for the dam removal project's first phase in June 2015.

"We will not have to do a new contract. We're expecting that contract to be honored through this year," Sanchez said.

dacarson@gannett.com

419-334-1046

Twitter:@DanielCarson7