The city of South Haven has applied for an emergency dredging permit from the Army Corps of Engineers to get its recreational harbor ready for boaters this summer.

City Manager Kate Hosier tells us recent Army Corps surveying revealed some concerning news. The water isn’t deep enough for boats.

“We’ve seen some mounding and some shoaling that’s occurring,” Hosier said. “One of the shoaling spots that are of concern to the city is the mouth of the channel. At the mouth of the channel, instead of being down to a project depth of 21 feet or even 14 feet, we’re clearly around eight feet.”

That eight feet, for example, isn’t deep enough for the Michigan Maritime Museum’s tall ship, Friends Good Will, to leave the harbor. Hosier says the goal is to get the water to a depth of at least ten feet.

“We would just hope that the harbor and the channel can be used this summer and that this shoaling issue is not going to be an issue for the boaters.”

Hosier says the city just applied for the dredging permit and it’s not known long it could take to get word back from the Army Corps. Therefore, a timetable for getting the dredging done isn’t yet known. The cost also remains unknown.

Hosier notes this isn’t the first time the city has had to seek emergency dredging approval. The last time was in 2013.