Posted on August 21, 2026
TOLEDO, Ohio (WTVG) – The Toledo-Lucas County Port Authority was awarded more than $34 million for a project to help restore the Maumee River.
The project focuses on removing contaminated sediment from an area near downtown Toledo. It will also help improve water quality and restore aquatic habitat, and advance the revitalization of Toledo’s most valuable asset: its waterfront.
The focus of the project is a one-mile stretch of the lower Maumee River near the Wheeling and Lake Erie Railway swing bridge. It runs along Front Street between the Seneca Petroleum Marine Terminal and the Ironville Marine Terminal.
Joe Cappel is the vice president of business development for the Port Authority.
“Legacy contamination that’s been there for decades is kind of trapped in the sediment. So this dredging operation will actually scoop up that material and bring it somewhere where it won’t come in contact with our water that we all rely on for drinking and recreation and all of those things. The contamination are PAHs and PCBs; so these are different chemicals that were involved in different industries along the waterfront over decades,” said Cappel. “[The project involves] dredging this material out and then removing it and safely depositing it into a confined disposal facility, which is actually designed to handle these contaminated sediments.”
So just how much contaminated sediment is involved in the project?
“The first phase would be about 120,000 cubic yards in the area near the Wheeling and Lake Erie Railroad swing bridge. Consider a dump truck that would handle maybe between five and 10 cubic yards. We’re talking a bout 120,000 cubic yards, so it is a pretty significant volume of material,” Cappel said.
The multimillion-dollar investment is designed to help improve the river for both people and wildlife.
“Removing these contaminants has multiple benefits for humans, for recreation, for the benthos — those are the critters that live on the bottom of the river and the lake — and for fish populations as well,” said Cappel.
Cappel said the hope is that this is just the start.
“There are a couple other projects in the pipeline that are very similar, so we are hoping this is the first of a series of projects that will remove contamination from our downtown area of the Maumee River,” he said.
The project is expected to start early next spring and last throughout the year and possibly into 2028. The majority of the money came through the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative. The Ohio EPA also provided critical funding.
