The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), Buffalo District, has been named as one of two “Proving Grounds” for the USACE, Engineering with Nature (EWN) program.
EWN is defined as the intentional alignment of natural and engineering processes to efficiently and sustainably deliver economic environmental and social benefits through collaborative processes.
Many projects in the Buffalo District have already been identified as potential EWN projects, some of them are:
Cleveland Harbor Green Breakwaters Project
Off the shores of Cleveland Harbor, rising out of Lake Erie like a wave of concrete and stones, sits the Cleveland Breakwater offering 24,570 feet of safe navigation and protection for the harbor.
The Cleveland Harbor Breakwater project involves modifying the design of the standard concrete toe blocks used for breakwater maintenance at the Cleveland Harbor East Arrowhead breakwater to provide features that will create habitat opportunities for Great Lakes fish and invertebrates that would not otherwise be present.
Presque Isle Beneficial Use
Presque Isle Peninsula is located on the southern shore of Lake Erie in the City of Erie, Pennsylvania. The Peninsula acts as a natural breakwater to form and protect Erie Harbor, Pennsylvania, and is home to Presque Isle State Park.
The demonstration concept involves placement of 1-3 scows of Erie Harbor sediment at three locations at the end of Presque Isle, off shore of Gull Point to prevent continued loss of habitat critical to the recovery of Great Lakes breeding populations of piping plover and other species.
Erie Harbor dredging uses bottom dump scows that hold 1,500 cubic yards of sediment and require a minimum of 8 feet of water to open. The project will monitor, analyze and evaluate the fate and transport of both the sand and silty clay fractions based on results of a tracer study to be performed as part of 2015 Erie Harbor dredging.