Lorain, Ohio, restoration effort receives $15 million EPA grant

Lorain, Ohio, became the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative’s (GLRI) largest single grant recipient when Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Regional Administrator Susan Hedman announced Tuesday it would receive $15 million for restoration work in Lake Erie’s Black River Area of Concern.

“The Black River is not only an important natural resource and fresh water habitat, it is also critical to the economic revitalization of the city of Lorain,” said Rep. Marcy Kaptur (D-OH), who attended the ceremony with Hedman and Lorain Mayor Chase Ritenauer. “This kind of ecological and economic transformation is something I have fought for over the course of many years. It is also central to the mission of the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative, which I have long supported.”

The project will move 24 acres of contaminated sediment and more than 500,000 cubic yards of steel mill byproducts from the Black River floodplain over the next two years. Since 2010, the GLRI has allocated $23 million in grant funding to the Black River Area of Concern.

“This new Great Lakes Restoration Initiative funding will accelerate restoration work needed to protect Lake Erie and to clean up the Black River Area of Concern,” Hedman said. “This work will reduce threats to public health and restore native habitat along the Black River.”