By ideastream’s Brian Bull
The EPA has awarded the City of Lorain single-largest amount of money yet to help clean polluted waterways through its Great Lakes Restoration Initiative.
The Black River was identified more than 30 years ago as an “area of concern”.
Lorain officials say they’ll use the $15 million to remove 24 acres of contaminated sediment from the Black River floodplain, which stems from decades of industrial pollution.
Among those present at the announcement was Ohio Congresswoman Marcy Kaptur, who asked Lorain Mayor Chase Ritenauer to put the EPA’s award in perspective.
“Now I asked the mayor, I said, ‘Mayor, how large is your regular city budget?’ He goes , ‘Congresswoman, it’s $30 million a year.” This is $15 million . Think what that’s going to mean to the City of Lorain and the restoration of this site.”
The money will be spent on a variety of projects, including setting up fish habitats. Kathryn Hoffman, Stormwater Manager for the City of Lorain, says at least $8 million will go towards building a landfill.
“Which will be located up on a bluff which is about 60 feet above the river,” says Hoffman. “Material that is considered contaminated will be placed in this landfill. Material that is not can be recycled, much of it recycled through the recycling operation which we run on the property.”
Susan Hedman is the Great Lakes National Program Manager for the EPA. She says the Black River was first identified as an “area of concern” in 1984 following decades of pollution from local steel mills and shipbuilding operations.
“The contaminants caused fish tumors. In fact, I understand that some people used to call the Black River the “river of fish tumors”. Upstream, agricultural sources and urban development also impacted the Black River and Lake Erie…through stormwater run-off and sewer overflows.”
Those overflows, says Hedman, further hurt bird and fish populations.