Holland Harbor Dredge Placement Facility

The Holland Board of Public Works (HBPW) owns and operates a dredge placement facility in cooperation with the U.S. Corps of Army Engineers and Holland Township. This facility periodically receives dredged soil from the inner Holland Harbor via hydraulic pumping.

Four commercial entities on the Lake Macatawa shoreline receive or send bulk cargo (coal, aggregate, scrap metal) via large freighters.  The commercial activities of the HBPW James De Young Power Plant, Brewer City Dock, Padnos Scrap Metal and Ver Planks Trucking allow the US Corps of Army Engineers to include Holland Harbor in their harbor maintenance program.

Pictured above is the David Z. Norton preparing to dock and unload a cargo of coal at the James De Young Power Plant.

The outer harbor near the breakwater is dredged by barge annually, and the dredgings are used to nourish the sand beaches along Lake Michigan.  Pictured above is Lake Macatawa, showing the inner channel that is periodically dredged for bulk freighters.

The inner harbor (a narrow channel marked by buoys all the way in to Brewer’s facility) is hydraulically dredged every 3-5 years. These dredgings are stored in the Holland Harbor Dredge Placement Facility located on Lakewood Boulevard east of Waverly Road. The solid particles settle out over time, with the water flowing through two “polishing” areas, before returning to the Black River.

The Holland Harbor Dredge Placement Facility after the 2005 dredging

After the dredged material or soil has sufficiently dried out, it is removed and made available for beneficial uses. Analyses to date have shown the material to be clean, but with a slightly elevated level of Arsenic (similar to background soil levels in the Macatawa Watershed). The Michigan Department of Environmental Quality has given the material a “Designation of Inertness” ---- only restricting its placement to the Macatawa Watershed, and that it not be placed in the 100-year flood plain, or be used to fill in wetlands.

Map of the Macatawa Watershed - showing the land area that “drains” to Lake Macatawa

Beneficial uses of the material to date include expansion of the Zeeland cemetery, development of two area Township parks, the bike path at Adams and I-196 and many smaller landscaping projects. 
                  

Loading dredge material from the dredge site	Zeeland Cemetery placement site

This site is truly an example of “sustainability” ---- the site can be used forever, eliminating the need to periodically site and construct new dredge containment facilities, and enabling a return of soils washed downstream back to the land in the Macatawa Watershed.

This project is also an excellent example of community collaboration, involving the four harbor users, The City of Holland, Holland Charter Township, the U.S. Corps of Army Engineers,  ----- and the non-profit group Outdoor Discovery Group & Macatawa Greenway Partnership (ODC/MGP). How is the ODC/MGP involved in a dredging operation? Good question! They have partnered with the primary entities listed above to install a 3000' publicly accessible walking path, as part of its vision to develop a 10-mile long greenway system along the Macatawa River. The bituminous path winds through the dredge containment property from the corner of Lakewood Boulevard and 120th to the Macatawa River near Chicago Drive. As part of the path development, two wildlife viewing platforms, interpretive signage, and a trailhead kiosk have been added. Between periodic dredgings, the facility is quiet and welcoming to many varieties of birds.

Pictured  left is one of the viewing platforms built by the ODC/MGP, as a Boy Scout Eagle Award project.