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The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' dredging contractor has shut down operations until March, by which time a broken pump should be rebuilt and the weather will be warmer to resume the $3.7 million project.

(Tom Ondrey/Plain Dealer file photo)

CLEVELAND, Ohio - Dredging in the Cuyahoga River shipping channel has come grinding to a halt and won't be completed until next year due to mechanical breakdowns and inclement weather.

The dredging delay is the latest in a series of setbacks linked to a lingering federal lawsuit between the Army Corps, the Ohio EPA and the Port of Cleveland. The dispute centers on where the dredged sediment should be disposed of and who should pay for it.

In the latest clash in U.S. District Court, defense lawyers filed documents contending the Army Corps isn't legally required to dredge Cleveland Harbor - a job the Army Corps has performed annually for at least the past 30 years.

The defense motion for summary judgment cited a federal statute that states the Army Corps "shall expedite the operation and maintenance, including dredging, of the navigation features of the Great Lakes and the connecting channels" for commercial navigation.

"There is no mandate that the Corps 'shall dredge,'" the Army Corps lawyers concluded.

Port of Cleveland spokesman Jade Davis said the Army Corps made the same arguments last year, and they were rejected by federal Judge Donald Nugent.

The Army Corps' lawyers also denied allegations that the agency intentionally delayed dredging to allow sediment to build up and threaten shipping in the river, with the intent to "put pressure on the locals."

EPA/Port lawyers previously produced emails from the Corps' Cleveland Harbor project manager that suggested the Corps could reduce the amount of dredging in the shipping channel to impede navigability and "keep the heat on the local users" to approve open-lake dumping.

The Army Corps delayed the $3.7 million dredging project this year until Nov. 14. In a typical year, the Corps would have dredged the shipping channel twice by that date.

The Army Corps' contractor, Ryba Marine Construction of Cheboygan, Mich., first attempted to finish dredging the docks at the ArcelorMittal steel mill, where the sediment buildup was the worst on the river. But on Dec. 9, after about a week of work, a pump on an excavator-mounted barge broke down, said Matthew Snyder, the Army Corps' construction branch chief.

"It was a pretty significant breakdown," Snyder said, and must be rebuilt before dredging of the remaining five miles of shipping channel can resume in the spring. "The cold water causes a lot of issues to their pumps and safety issues due to ice."

Port spokesman Davis said the Army Corps brought the problems onto themselves by delaying dredging for nearly a year.

"We don't have as much ship traffic during the winter, but if we have a lot of snowfall and precipitation we could see a lot more sediment build-up in the spring," Davis said.

Meanwhile, the courtroom combatants are awaiting a ruling from federal Judge Donald Nugent. The EPA/Port team is seeking a judicial order compelling the Army Corps to dispose of the dredged sediment in a lakefront containment dike, and to pay the additional $2.1 million required for land disposal.

The Army Corps contends the sediment is clean enough for open-lake disposal, and that if the EPA/Port insists on land storage they should be required to pay the difference. The EPA/Port say the sediment is too polluted with PCBs to be dumped into Lake Erie, and insisted the dredgings be stored at the Port-owned Dike 12 near Burke Lakefront Airport.

In October, the Army Corps agreed to pay the initial costs of onshore storage, and the EPA agreed to reimburse the Corps if it fails to prevail in the pending federal lawsuit.