U.S. EPA Funds Great Lakes Restoration Initiative in Evans, N.Y.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) awarded a $172,125 Great Lakes Restoration Initiative grant to the town of Evans, N.Y., to fund green infrastructure projects to improve the quality of water entering Lake Erie. The town will use these funds to install rain gardens and bioswales, which are tracts of land designed to manage drainage, in Evans Town Park to reduce bacteria at the beach and prevent approximately 221,000 gal of untreated storm water from reaching Lake Erie. In 2014, the Evans Town Park beach was closed on 31 days of the 66-day beach season due to water pollution occurrences.

“Through this EPA grant, Evans, N.Y., will use green infrastructure to prevent storm water from carrying contamination into Lake Erie and closing public beaches to swimming,” said EPA Regional Administrator Judith A. Enck. “Green infrastructure projects make environmental and fiscal sense, resulting in cleaner water, reduced flooding, and a more resilient shoreline in the face of climate change.”

Evans will use the $172,125 grant to install two rain gardens and two vegetated bioswales in the park to reduce discharges of untreated storm water runoff to the local channel that flows directly into Lake Erie. In addition, these green infrastructure projects should help reduce the number of beach closings caused by bacteria, nutrients and other contaminants.

Evans will hold a public meeting early in the design process to seek public input on the design of the rain gardens and bioswales.

Including Evans, 13 cities are receiving grants totaling more than $2 million from EPA’s Great Lakes Restoration Initiative Shoreline Cities program, which is designed to improve water quality in the Great Lakes basin through the use of green infrastructure. The projects include rain gardens, bioswales, green roofs, porous pavement, greenways, constructed wetlands, storm water tree trenches and other green infrastructure measures designed to improve water quality at locations throughout the Great Lakes basin.

The Great Lakes Restoration Initiative was launched in 2010 to accelerate efforts to protect and restore the largest system of fresh surface water in the world. It is the largest investment in the Great Lakes in more than two decades. Great Lakes Restoration Initiative resources are used by EPA and ten other federal agencies to strategically target the biggest threats to the Great Lakes ecosystem. Approximately 30 million Americans get their drinking water from the Great Lakes, and the lakes also support a multi-billion dollar economy based on fishing, boating and recreational activities.

For more information about the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative, visit www.glri.us.

For more information about the Great Lakes Shoreline Cities grants, visit www.epa.gov/great-lakes-funding/great-lakes-shoreline-cities-grants.

Source: U.S. Environmental Protection Agency