GRAND MARAIS -- The Michigan Department of Environmental Quality granted Burt Township the permit they've been waiting to get for months Monday...the permit to build their new breakwater in Grand Marais Harbor.
The project will save their harbor, which has become dangerous as it fills with sediment. They've fought hard to get $5 million in state funding and $40,000 from a Reader's Digest competition, but now, the township says they are hitting a major road block.
They're still waiting on the permit from the Army Corps of Engineers. Without it, they cannot build the breakwater.
The Army Corps of Engineers permitting process is different than the state's process. They first received plans for the breakwater on August 29. Burt Township then gave the Army Corps of Engineers a revised set of plans for the project on October 24.
The Army Corps still has $1.6 million appropriated towards the project, however, they have yet to come through with the funding.
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