A U-S EPA official stopped by the shore of Lake Erie today (Friday) bearing gifts. The agency is providing half a million dollars to three Ohio cities so they can reduce the amount of untreated runoff water flowing into the lake. Ideastream’s Mark Urycki has details.
The cities of Euclid, Sandusky, and Mentor will get the funding, much of which will used to rebuild parking lots. Mentor planning director Abe Bruckman says his city's work will center on the Mentor Marsh.
“I know it’s hard for people to imagine getting excited about a parking lot project but we are excited about a parking lot project.”
The cities will resurface acres of parking lots using new material like porous concrete. Euclid planning director Jonathan Holoday
“More expensive than regular concrete but the benefits are fantastic. What it’ll do is allow water to drain into the concrete an filter down into the ground rather than just flowing into the storm water system.”
EPA Administrator Susan Hedman says a lot of pollutants wash off parking lots.
"These are going to be pollutants associated with gasoline. But also this can include a lot of organic matter that contributes to harmful algal blooms. Phosphorous and nitrogen are major components in urban areas where people use a lot of lawn fertilizer.”
The cities plan to use porous concrete to surface lots and build green buffer zones that absorb rain water and reduce flooding.
“If the ground is better able to absorb large quantities of water during extreme precipitation events..."
By "extreme precipitation events" she means “rain storms.”
"That means that the sewers are not overburdened and there’s less likelihood of flooding, less likelihood of streets filling up with water, less likelihood of basements filling up with water."
The three projects together are expected to reduce untreated runoff getting into the lake by 3 million gallons a year.
The projects in Mentor and Euclid will dovetail with some existing recreational plans like boardwalks and trails along the lake and Mentor Marsh.