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EPA awards grants throughout Lake Erie shoreline

August 10, 2016

by Jon Stinchcomb -- Port Clinton News Herald

SANDUSKY - Legislators at the national level and local public officials are working together through the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative in an effort to maintain the health of Lake Erie and its coast.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency recently announced more than $2 million in federal funds in Great Lakes Restoration Initiative grants for new projects throughout the region.

Projects awarded funds from the GLRI’s Shoreline Cities grant program were announced at Lions Park in Sandusky on Wednesday, where Cameron Davis, senior adviser at the U.S. EPA, was joined by U.S. Rep. Marcy Kaptur, D-Toledo, and local leaders.

The Shoreline Cities grants will help fund the green infrastructure projects to improve water quality at municipal beaches.

Davis explained that green infrastructure is a cleaner, more natural addition to “gray infrastructure,” which refers to pipes, bricks, mortar and the like.

“To me, green infrastructure is one of the coolest new things out there,” he said. “It’s about letting nature do the work of gray infrastructure.”

Davis noted that while traditional infrastructure, such as proper sewers and drainage, is still important, researchers are increasingly finding that nature can be great at some of the same tasks.

For example, bioswales are used in landscaping to act as natural filtration, removing silt and other pollutants from surface runoff water.

When completed, the 13 projects awarded this year’s Shoreline Cities grants are anticipated to prevent over 13 million gallons of untreated stormwater from contaminating beaches and getting into the Great Lakes.

Sandusky’s project, which includes the construction of rain gardens and installation of meadow to serve as a bioswale at Lions Park, is expected to reduce over 280,000 gallons of unfiltered runoff from reaching Lake Erie at that location alone.

Other cities in Ohio awarded in the program were Huron, Vermillion, Ashtabula and Cleveland.

The Shoreline Cities program is not the only part of the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative to recently announce grant recipients in the area.

On Tuesday, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) awarded $600,000 to a project at the Toussaint Wildlife Area in Ottawa County, about five miles north of Oak Harbor.

Ducks Unlimited, a nonprofit wildlife conservation organization, was awarded the federal aid for a project to restore fish access to the 231-acre coastal wetlands area by removing levees and other water control structures, according to NOAA.

“This is terrific news for anyone who has visited the Toussaint Wildlife Area and who supports preserving our natural habitat,” Kaptur said. “It is also terrific news for Ottawa County’s local businesses, many of whom enjoy an economic benefit from visitors to the Toussaint Wildlife Area.”

Kaptur also said NOAA informed her that more funding for additional restoration in the Great Lakes region is anticipated over the next three years.

“I am particularly pleased to hear about NOAA’s commitment of up to $20 million for other regional restoration projects in the next 36 months,” she said.

Since the GLRI’s launch in 2010, it has helped fund more than 2,900 projects totaling more than $1.5 billion in federal funds toward efforts to protect and restore the Great Lakes.

“The Great Lakes Restoration Initiative helps protect the Lake by bringing federal agencies together with the state of Ohio to address the greatest threats to the Lake,” said Ohio Senator Rob Portman. “These grants will make a difference in these communities and help ensure that we preserve the Lake for future generations.”

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