Near its mouth the Maumee River widens into a federally maintained shipping channel and eventually empties into Maumee Bay. A watershed dominated by agricultural uses, Toledo Harbor receives more sediment than any other Great Lakes Harbor. Average annual dredging in Toledo Harbor in recent years (635,000 cubic yards) reflects a large portion of the annual load of sediment from the Maumee River. Yet this amount is not enough to maintain the shipping channel at its designated depth. The Harbor is severely threatened by shoaling in the navigational channels due to the backlog of dredging that grows every year.
Click the map for a high quality pdf version (courtesy of the Toledo-Lucas County Port Authority). For more maps, please click the Toledo Harbor Maps link on the right.
Toledo Harbor and its dredging issues are unique in the Great Lakes and require unique solutions. Toledo Harbor dredging is the largest annual dredging project of any Great Lakes port, both in terms of cost and quantity dredged. In fact, Toledo Harbor dredging alone constitutes 25% of the total dredging in the Great Lakes.
A Toledo Harbor Dredging Task Force, consisting of representatives of Ohio Lake Erie Commission, Ohio DNR, the US Army Corps of Engineers, the Toledo-Lucas County Port Authority, and other representatives, is spearheading an effort to identify options and opportunities for dredge material disposal and reuse. Ohio EPA has expressed the need to limit open lake disposal of sediments that are dredged from the navigation channels. In 2010, the Ohio Lake Erie Commission received a $250,000 grant from the USEPA Great Lakes Restoration Initiative to complete a sediment management plan for Toledo Harbor, which addresses short and long term strategies for addressing dredged material in Toledo Harbor shipping channels.
Learn more about this project HERE.
NEW - The Economic Impacts of the Port of Toledo (pdf)