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QUESTION I'd like to dredge a small portion of our beach for a swimming area around the dock. I have visited the MNR and the Fisheries and Oceans websites and haven't found any useful suggestions on how to do this. I would like to have some information before jumping into a contract with a professional. Gary Boyd, Sparrow Lake, Ont.
ANSWER Dredging is a big, dirty job that comes at a cost to both the environment and your wallet, and a permit is always required. You may not get one, however, if the area you want to dredge is a prime fish habitat or a major spawning site, if there are species at risk, or if there's a wildlife sanctuary in the immediate vicinity, says Wayne Mitchell, Parks Canada's realty manager for the Trent-Severn Waterway. Changing water depth can prevent aquatic plants that previously flourished from growing back, which in turn damages fish habitat, says Dan Thompson, senior habitat biologist for Fisheries and Oceans Canada, Parry Sound. Removing sand until clay is exposed may have a negative environmental impact, Thompson explains, because not much grows in hard clay. "Dredging should be a last resort." If you are granted a permit, expect to shell out big bucks. Heavy equipment may have to be floated to the site, and you pay from the moment the rig leaves the yard until it's back on its home turf, to the tune of $120 an hour. At his Peterborough excavating company, Donnie La Fonte uses a digging rig set on tracks with a bucket and a 15-metre boom that swings out to the dredge site from shore. The material is scooped out and piled up on land. You'll need to prove that, once there, it's far enough away from the lake that it won't leach back in the next rainstorm. If you can't, the MNR will require disposal of it off-site, and additional hauling and dumping costs will apply. You also won't be allowed to dredge from April 1 through Labour Day to avoid fish spawning seasons and cottage prime time.
In the end, dredging is a lot of work and money for something that may not solve the problem. "I have seen cases where people dredge, then in a couple of years they apply to do it again," says Chris Near, senior lands technician at the Bracebridge MNR. Currents will simply push the sand and silt back into your swimming hole.
Cottagers looking to dredge their shore should first contact their municipal office to start the permit process. Since Sparrow Lake is part of the Trent-Severn, you'll have to apply through the Parks Canada Trent-Severn Waterway National Historic Site office. Permits for cottagers not connected to the Trent-Severn are issued by their local MNR or conservation authority.
Kate Barker
* Published in the June 2006 issue of Cottage Life |