Notes on the Lake: Don't Turn Braddock Bay into a Muck Hole

View from east; Salmon Ck. at top.
Notice the natural hydrology of the Bay

WHAT: One of the few bays and marshland complexes on the southern shore of L. Ontario in NYS which is and has been holding its own for over ten thousand years!!

ALERT: How much science and how much politics are involved in the proposed Army Corps project which is slated to place a permanent barrier across half of the mouth of Braddock Bay, part of the 2,600-acre Braddock Bay Wildlife Management Area managed by NYS Department of Environmental Conservation.

Yet, the Town of Greece has long had its eye on "Shoreline Protection" in its LWRP [Local Waterfront Revitalization] https://greeceny.gov/files/23~Chapter%205-Proposed%20Projects.pdf: "Construct a shoreline protective feature at Braddock Bay to PROTECT THE SENSITIVE SHORELINE from continued recession and to restore historic sedimentation patterns to the bay." Read: cement breakwall and nod to property owners - even though there is no residential property on the baymouth area.

HOW BRADDOCK BAY [WHICH IS IN THE SALMON CREEK WATERSHED] GOT LUMPED WITH THE GENESEE RIVER [ROCHESTER EMBAYMENT']; clue - it's about getting $$:
http://www.epa.gov/glnpo/lakeont/2013/201308-lamp-ontario.pdf

WHO IS PUSHING THIS US Army Corps Project through and why: GET THE FACTS: http://www.epa.gov/glnpo/aoc/rochester/index.html This project is being encouraged by NY Senator Chuck Schumer: http://www.schumer.senate.gov/record.cfm?id=350539& the EPA funded the US Army Corps of Engineers out of Buffalo to ostensibly [and in report] "reduce erosion of the existing emergent marsh."-- Yet everyone can see, the cattail marsh is encroaching -- not eroding the bay ~ http://www.lrb.usace.army.mil/Missions/CivilWorks/DistrictProjects/BraddockBay.aspx Read the "Feasibility Study": http://cdm16021.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/compoundobject/collection/p16021coll7/id/910/rec/5

RED FLAG: proposed $9M funding via the EPA with Great Lakes Regional Initiative for the Army Corps might effectively destroy the bay. Don't underestimate how massive this barrier is: http://www.lrb.usace.army.mil/Portals/45/docs/BraddockBay/Braddock-Bay-Poster02.pdf

WHY: The hydrology the Bay works to keep it alive due to both wave action and incoming creeks - Salmon Creek and Buttonwood Ck. A natural barrier already exists at the mouth of the bay: the submerged 100-year-old foundation of the trolley bed which is locally called "The West Spit". This has an ameliorating effect on the storms coming in from all directions. The hydrology the bay is working to keep it alive due to both wave action and incoming creeks - Salmon Creek and Buttonwood Ck. A barrier will permanently alter this hydrology negatively.

NOT being taken into account:

Why not consider existing rip-rap rock barrier on eastside extension of Edgemere Dr. along old trolley bed as your primary 'stabilizing' structure rather than extending anything into mouth of bay. Proposed barrier [concrete headland] will have detrimental effect if you take into consideration the silt, etc. from Buttonwood, Salmon creeks and tributaries as well as year-round wave action coming in from Lake Ontario -- including winter storms piling up sand at least a mile out onto west spit and its extension underwater across mouth of bay;
Don't keep moving the sand/dirt from the old Manitou trolley foundation on the westside [as is being done now by 'testing'] as it provides a natural, wave-endured barrier and without it, more sand, silt will enter the bay proper;
Think of the west spit as a natural habitat resource --- the spit is both underwater and extends into upland maintaining a less severe wave action coming in from westerly, northwesterly and northerly storms -- keep that there!
Find out from Montezuma if 'potholes' work or are just immediately filled in by invasives -purple loosetrife -- you could make the bay marsh worse! Cattails and bull rush have been in the bay and ponds forever, but still, the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative wants to 'clean it up' and even funded Ducks Unlimited for $499,627.00 to do just that!!
Realize that there NEVER will be habitat renewal in the bay proper -- ONLY THE UPSTREAM WATERSHED -- because of the water level 'up and down' of L. Ontario due to St. Lawrence Seaway and Ontario Hydro at Niagara Falls --- it will always be cattail -- better than MUCK!