BUFFALO, N.Y. — The Erie Canal Harbor Development Corporation (ECHDC) gave its formal approval Monday to a plan to turn Slip 3 near Wilkeson Pointe into a wetland.
Slip 3 was built along the lakeshore a century ago to accommodate lake freighters during Buffalo's boom days as an inland harbor. As it is exists today, it doesn't handle big boats anymore, but remains as a 25 foot deep slip.
The idea is to have the Army Corps of Engineers come in and build a breakwall across most of its mouth. Then over the next several years, they will begin filling it in with dredgings from the Buffalo River. Its depth will vary in spots between 2 feet to 10 feet.
With the addition of gravel, piles of logs and others materials across its 7 acres, the ECHDC will create wetlands - more like a swamp - in which they expect fish and wildlife to congregate.
The project will cost $14 million.
"These projects are all expensive," said Steve Ranalli, president of the Erie Canal Harbor Development Corporation. "This is all contaminated property - it's all going to be covered over the longhall. We do have a $150 million Outer Harbor Restoration Plan - that's the big goal here so this is just one piece of it."
It won't be done overnight either. The breakwall across the mouth of Slip 3 won't be built until 2023, and due to the regulations permitting dredging from the river, they won't be able to fill the slip as envisioned entirely, until about a decade from now.
The agency in charge of Buffalo's Outer Harbor has come under fire by environmentalists for some of its plans, including an amphitheater. But it believes this effort, on the opposite end of the harbor, should be pleasing to all.