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GRAND MARAIS -- For centuries, recreational and commercial boaters have poured into Grand Marais harbor.  They've come in search of fish, storm refuge, or just a good time.  But in the last decade, something unwelcome has poured in:  sand.

Since its old break wall eroded, the harbor has been filling with the sediment, making it violent and dangerous and pushing visitors out.

“The economic impact of this harbor is huge,” said Burt Township Supervisor, Jack Hubbard.  “The entire community of Grand Marais is built around this harbor; it is the heart and soul of this community.  Without this harbor, this town will not exist as it does today.”

Each year about 100,000 cubic yards of sand infiltrates Grand Marais harbor, and the best way to view the devastation is from the air.  So that's what I did.  I hopped in a private Cessna to get a birds-eye view of the damage, and even in cloudy skies, you could see sand consuming the harbor.

The solution:  a new break wall--one that would cost about seven million dollars.  The Army Corps of Engineers developed plans to build it this summer with stimulus money, but they came to a screeching halt. They claim they ran out of funding, leaving the township to fend for itself.

“Somebody has to take care of this situation,” Hubbard said.  “If the federal government isn't going to do it, they need to have the intestinal fortitude to tell us no, we're not going to do it, you guys are on your own on this one and let us come up with the solution.”

The township has held fund-raisers to do so, but Senator Carl Levin is fighting for the harbor.  He says it's still the responsibility of the national government.

"We believe there’s a federal responsibility here because it had been designated as a federal harbor, and we think that this is one of the types of efforts that the stimulus package is created to approach.”

Either way, if something isn't done quickly, the safe harbor could soon be just a memory.