Posted by Jeff Moore on June 13, 19101 at 10:54:11:
According to unofficial reports, the cost to the taxpayers of the bottom survey currently underway in the Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary is in excess of two million dollars. This figure is unconfirmed but I have personally been in contact with Ms. Ellen Brody (project coordinator for TBNMS 734-741-2270) and she did not know, or was not willing to disclose what the cost of the project is. In fact, none of the public liaisons associated with the project seem to know what the cost is. There have been Freedom of Information Act requests filed with NOAA to disclose the actual cost of the survey, so in time the truth will hopefully come out. The survey is being conducted aboard to Lake Guardian (Great Lakes research vessel owned by EPA) utilizing equipment and personnel from the Institute for Exploration (IFE). The well-known Dr. Robert Ballard chairs the Institute for Exploration. Dr. Ballard will be making a public appearance in Alpena on June 22 to discuss the details of the survey. “Dr. Ballard will not be aboard the vessel during the survey”(Ellen Brody) but he will be making the public appearances.
The peculiar thing about this information stems from the fact that there are a number of local, commercial, Great Lakes entities that are capable of doing a bottomland survey successfully, and they were neither consulted, nor allowed to bid on the project. The commercial surveyors that I have talked with seemed to agree that this work could be done for a fraction of what appears to be the cost to the taxpayers.
June 2001