Grand Island advisory panel finds private Turtle Creek dredge consistent with waterfront plan

Members of several Grand Island advisory boards reviewed a private-property dredging plan for Turtle Creek and voted to forward a recommendation that it is consistent with the town’s Local Waterfront Revitalization Program.

The applicant described a maintenance dredge to restore the channel to its historic contours after decades of shoaling. The applicant said the last dredge was done in 2001 and the original permitted channel depth was about 5 to 6 feet, whereas normal water depth now is roughly 2 feet. “The goal of the project is to take it back to that original depth,” the applicant said. He described a center-channel approach that would remove about 15 feet of channel width in a roughly 50-foot creek and leave nearshore habitat intact.

Committee members pressed the applicant on environmental safeguards. The applicant said work would be done from shore with a long‑reach excavator placed on timber mats, that a wrapped coffer‑dam and silt‑stacking behind the barn would control sediment, and that dredged material would be retained on site to decant and be reused as topsoil. He said fallen trees blocking flow would be pulled out but that root masses would be left in place per DEC guidance.

Members discussed permitting. Several panelists noted DEC requested chemical sediment sampling as part of its review, and the applicant said he expected continued exchanges with DEC and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and hoped federal and state approvals could be complete this summer after the spawning season ends. Committee members reiterated that the town’s role is to review consistency with the LWRP and then forward a determination to the building department and to the applicant for use in state and federal reviews.

After questions, Paul Eichner (S1) moved that the project “complies with the terms and conditions of our Local Waterfront Revitalization Program”; Gary Hall (S2) seconded. The committee agreed and will send a consistency letter to the building official and notify DEC/USACE as appropriate. The recommendation does not substitute for DEC or Corps permits, and members said any state or federal denial would void local consistency and halt the work.

The committee recorded several clarifications for the record: the dredge would focus on the center channel, work staging would use mats and reach equipment from shore, and on‑site upland disposal and decanting would be employed so that dredged material remains on the property pending reuse as topsoil. The building department contact named in the meeting was Ron Milks, who will receive the town’s recommendation for the applicant to present to state and federal reviewers.

The committee did not set a construction start date; members said the applicant must await DEC/USACE approvals and avoid the fish spawning period.