Racing to stop erosion: Contractors inundated with shoreline construction work – Crain’s Detroit Business

Contractors are reporting faster-than-normal processing of permits from the EGLE and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for shoreline excavation and construction of rock-and-steel structures to protect homes and marine property.

The state environmental agency is typically issuing permits within 14 days and within two days for "really critical" requests, EGLE Director Liesl Eichler Clark said.

"We're working to make sure we're turning those suckers around as fast as possible," Clark told Crain's.

Grobbel, who worked for the state environmental agency earlier in his career, said he's witnessed a different approach to processing permit applications, which he handles for clients.

"It used to take six months to get a permit," Grobbel said. "They're speeding things up dramatically."

State regulators also have been triaging the situation at times, Clark said.

"Every week I'm hearing a different tweak to the policy where now (using) sand bags on an emergency basis is allowed without a permit," Grobbel said. "That was never the case prior."

Clark said the agency hasn't thrown out its regulations book.

But they've become more nimble as dunes make more dramatic shifts after big storms, sometimes leaving cottages on the verge of tumbling over Lake Michigan bluffs, she said.

"If a challenge is imminent, obviously we want them to reach out and communicate," Clark said.

Clark and some professionals in the shoreline construction engineering industry are pushing back on a legislative effort to suspend the permit process during periods of high water on the Great Lakes.

Senate Bill 714 would allow property owners to make emergency repairs to their shorelines if Lakes Michigan and Huron exceed 581.5 feet above sea level. For lakes St. Clair and Erie, permits would not be required under the bill if water levels exceeded 576.7 feet and 573.8 feet, respectively.

Those water levels were the existing mean levels measured on lakes Erie, St. Clair, Huron and Michigan in February, according to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' Office of Great Lakes Hydraulics and Hydrology.

Water levels in February were up 38 inches on Lakes Michigan, Huron and St. Clair compared with February 2019 and up 36 inches on Lake Erie, according to the Army Corps' Feb. 21 forecast.

Vanquishing the permitting process during periods of high water could lead to myriad legal disputes between lakeshore neighbors, said Mark Hurley, director of engineering for Gosling Czubak Engineering Sciences Inc. in Traverse City.

"Nothing's standardized then, so there's really no review process to go along with what's my neighbor doing and how could that affect me," Hurley said. "That would be a difficult one to get on board with."

No one erosion-control project is the same; every slope or lakefront property has its own unique challenges.

The permit process is not nearly as challenging as the logistics of excavating alongside highly developed shorelines with limited access points for heavy equipment to navigate around landscaping and existing retaining walls, Walton said.

"Many of these properties have compromised access," Walton said.

Grobbel said suspending the permitting process during periods of high water is "a recipe for disaster."

"Stuff will get built that shouldn't be built," he said.

Contact: [emailprotected]; (313) 446-1654; @ChadLivengood

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Racing to stop erosion: Contractors inundated with shoreline construction work - Crain's Detroit Business