The Port of Cleveland will provide comments opposing the proposal and urges the public to attend and speak out  Cleveland, Ohio - The Port of Cleveland opposes the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ (USACE) latest proposal to dump unsuitable sediment in Lake Erie as part of harbor dredging in 2016. The USACE is holding a public hearing on their proposal from 5:30 – 9pm on Monday March 1st at the Breen Center, 2008 West 30th Street in Cleveland. The Port urges members of the public to attend and make comments expressing their views at this hearing. For decades, sediment dredged from the Cuyahoga River has been deemed unsafe for open lake disposal due to contamination by certain toxins and is instead placed in confined disposal facilities (CDFs) to minimize exposure to the aquatic food chain, including fish consumed by people, and to the source of public drinking water. Recent testing indicates persistent and, in some cases, elevated levels of these toxins in the sediments, including PCBs and other harmful compounds, prompting Ohio EPA to disqualify these sediments for open lake dumping in 2014 and 2015. The Port of Cleveland has proposed to the Army Corps, and is in fact already implementing, a safe and cost-effective alternative to open lake dumping for handling dredge material.  The Army Corps has rejected the Port’s alternative and threatens to not dredge the most critical section of the ship channel unless, in effect, they are paid to handle the material in a manner the law already requires of them.  “The Port of Cleveland will attend the March 1st hearing and again voice our steadfast opposition to the Army Corps’ misguided campaign to dump unsuitable sediment into Lake Erie or shift rightful federal costs to Cleveland and Ohio,” said Will Friedman, Port President and CEO. “We urge all those concerned about water quality, wildlife, and the economy to attend and go on the record supporting the sensible approach to handling this material already being implemented by the Port.”