Posted on June 11, 2019
The Environmental Protection Agency has awarded more than $1 million to the Ohio EPA for continued restoration work at four contaminated sites along Lake Erie, including the Ashtabula River.
The funding aims to support continued work on highly-contaminated sites designated as areas of concern under the 1987 Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement. The agreement targeted 43 areas of concern for cleanup, one of which was the Ashtabula River.
The federal EPA awarded $1.3 million to the Ohio EPA on May 30, the first installment of about $3.7 million in Great Lakes Restoration Initiative grants.
The Great Lakes Restoration Initiative grant supports work toward “delisting” the four areas of concern in Ohio, which include locations on the Ashtabula, Black, Cuyahoga and Maumee rivers. The two lower miles of the Ashtabula River were designated an area of concern more than three decades ago.
“Addressing the challenges with Lake Erie is a high priority for the state,” Ohio EPA Director Laurie A. Stevenson said. “We are appreciative and eager to put this grant to work for important restoration work and other projects in this area.”
Over several decades, chemical plants along Fields Brook, a tributary of the lower Ashtabula River, discharged a wide range of compounds and heavy metals into the tributary, which in turn infiltrated a portion of the river.
Fields Brook was named a Superfund in 1983, resulting in a cleanup of the brook and industrial sites that occurred between 1999 and 2001.
In 1987, the lower two miles of the river was designated a Great Lakes Area of Concern, and one year later a special council crafted a remedial action plan targeting the lower 2.5 miles of the river, Ashtabula Harbor and the adjacent Lake Erie shore.
The action plan identified six concerns caused by the contamination.
The Ashtabula River’s cleanup progress has made strides over the past several decades. Between 2005 and 2013, more than 500,000 cubic yards of sediment was dredged from the river resulting in the removal of large amounts of contaminants.
In 2010 and 2012, more than 3,800 feet of in-stream habitat was restored on the Ashtabula River. Those structures allowed the Ohio EPA to remove eliminate three previous concerns in 2014: loss of fish/wildlife habitat, degradation of fish/wildlife populations and restrictions on fish and wildlife consumption.
Two areas of concern remain from the original six: restriction on dredging activities and fish tumors and other deformities.
Congressman Dave Joyce, R-14th District, a longtime advocate of Great Lakes restoration initiatives, praised the funding being awarded to the Ohio EPA.
“The Great Lakes are an invaluable natural resource and an economic powerhouse, and it is of the utmost importance to protect and preserve them for future generations,” he said. “This important funding helps us do just that. I commend the EPA for recognizing the need to provide these funds so we can continue to treat the Great Lakes like the national treasure they are.”
State Rep. John Patterson, D-Jefferson, also applauded the EPA for continuing to fund the areas of concern and Great Lakes initiatives that will remain imperative in places like Ashtabula County, which must balance economic development projects with a need to maintain clean water.
Patterson said he remembers the time when the river was majorly polluted, but significant progress has been made over the previous decades.
However, as Ashtabula County becomes more viable for port vessels and pleasure craft, Patterson said annual dredging will be imperative to maintain the progress that has been made.
Open lake dumping of dredged sediment will be prohibited in 2020, Patterson said, which is why the dredging facility in the works in Conneaut — which will turn the dredge material into top soil — is important. The county must comply with clean water standards while balancing a need for an open port and economic development projects.
“Great things lie ahead for the Ashtabula Harbor, but we have to maintain it,” Patterson said. “We have come a long way in cleaning up the Ashtabula River. The partnership between the local community and the state, coupled with the support of the federal government, have allowed us to make significant progress. However, there is more work to be done.”
Source: starbeacon.com
