Region gains $1M in federal grants to aid Great Lakes

Mayor Mike Bell greets U.S. EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson after a news conference near the Maumee River in East Toledo. THE BLADE/AMY E. VOIGT Enlarge | Photo Reprints

The Toledo area fared well in the first round of competitive grant money the federal government released Tuesday under President Obama's Great Lakes Restoration Initiative, with ties to nearly half of the $2 million share Ohio has been awarded so far.

The University of Toledo is getting $550,228 to help develop ways to reduce the impact of sewage sludge on surface water. The Ohio Office of Budget and Management is getting $250,000 to help area researchers develop beneficial reuses of silt dredged from the Toledo shipping channel, such as building up barriers to prevent erosion and enhancing fish habitat.

The Ohio Department of Natural Resources is getting $168,000 to help replant trees in Maumee State Forest, especially those devastated by the emerald ash borer. And the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency will get $1 million for improvements to Cuyahoga

County surface water in and around Cleveland, according to the U.S. EPA.

In a separate announcement, the Ann Arbor-based Great Lakes Commission - an agency that coordinates activities among the eight Great Lakes states - said more than $4.3 million of federal grant money will go toward reducing soil erosion from Minnesota to New York. Among the recipients are the Michigan Department of Agriculture, which is getting $438,033 for the Raisin River; the Erie Soil and Water Conservation District, which is getting $137,552 to protect Old Woman Creek, and WSOS Community Action Commission, Inc., which is getting $581,926 for the Sandusky River, the commission said.

U.S. EPA Administrator Lisa P. Jackson announced the awards along the western Maumee River's shoreline Tuesday. She was flanked by Ohio Lt. Gov. Lee Fisher, Ohio EPA Director Chris Korleski, and Tim Eder, Great Lakes Commission executive director.

They spoke to about 75 people at the Toledo Maritime Center near Front Street in East Toledo.

"We at the city of Toledo realize we have under-marketed our Great Lakes and our waterfront," Toledo Mayor Mike Bell said in introducing the delegation. "This is another major day in turning the city of Toledo around."

Ms. Jackson, who later Tuesday was to attend a similar event in Green Bay, Wis., said the collective work being done across the basin under the initiative is "actively making the Great Lakes better for future generations."

The grants are one part of the initiative, which was funded at a $475 million its first year. The federal EPA said that is the largest single-year investment in the lake region in more than two decades. President Obama pledged during the 2008 campaign to provide more than $5 billion in new spending for Great Lakes programs before he leaves the White House.

The plan has five priorities: reducing toxic hot spots, combating invasive species, curbing polluted runoff, protecting wetlands and other shoreline habitat, and enhancing public outreach.

"This is one of the great assets of Toledo and northwest Ohio," Mr. Fisher said, pointing to the Maumee, one of Lake Erie's largest tributaries. He added that there is "no greater asset than the Great Lakes."

The announcement was made as hearings began in a U.S. District courtroom in Chicago over a preliminary injunction Michigan Attorney General Mike Cox has filed against the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and others over Asian carp - an invasive species that threatens to undo much of the region's progress.

Southern fish hatcheries imported the species years ago to eat pond scum. Many escaped confinement in Arkansas after the Mississippi River flooded in 1993 and have been migrating upstream since. DNA evidence show they have slipped past electrical barriers the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers built to keep them out.

Mr. Cox seeks a court order requiring stronger barriers while a lawsuit calling for a permanent separation of Lake Michigan from the Mississippi River is decided. The two were linked by a series of waterways decades ago.

Mr. Cox, supported by Ohio Attorney General Richard Cordray and attorneys general from Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Pennsylvania, has accused the Obama Administration of turning its back on the region by supporting his home state of Illinois, which is fighting to keep the status quo.

Mr. Fisher said he too wants the administration to do more. "We view Asian carp as nothing less than an emergency," he said.

Contact Tom Henry at:

thenry@theblade.com

or 419-724-6079.