The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has awarded grants throughout the Great Lakes states that will impact the health of fish and the people who eat them, will increase tree cover to filter rainwater and runoff, and will study how algal blooms form in Lake Erie with the hopes of minimizing them. The grants total $6.6 million and all of the funding comes from the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative.
Healthy Fish and Healthy Anglers
The Great Lakes Restoration Initiative awarded $3.6 million in grants to Michigan, Minnesota, Wisconsin, and New York with the purpose of determining which fish are contaminated with toxins, where those fish are, the populations most at risk for consuming these fish, and the messages that most effectively communicate with those communities. The grant’s goals are to diminish toxins in the fish and to minimize the amount of contaminated fish consumed by people. More details about these grants can be found in the EPA’s press release.
Algal Blooms in Lake Erie
This Great Lakes Restoration Initiative grant for $500,000 was awarded to the Ohio Lake Erie Commission in the hopes of understanding more about how phosphorus and nitrogen move around the Lake. The project will track the nutrients, determine ways to prevent them from reaching the Lake, and determine the role these nutrients play in creating the low oxygen zone in the middle of the Lake where little or no aquatic life can live. More details about this grant can be found in the EPA’s press release.
Using Trees to Protect the Water
The U.S. Forest Service is giving out $2.5 million in GLRI funding to six of the Great Lakes states—Illinois, Michigan, Minnesota, New York, Ohio, and Wisconsin. These grants will go to improve tree health or presence in urban areas as a way to combat pollutants in water runoff. For a breakdown of the programs these grants will fund, read the U.S. Forest Service’s summary.