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GLIN==> 1999 Ohio Lake Erie Award Winners
Press Release
September 8, 1999
Dr. Peter Fraleigh, Heidelberg Lab & City of Mentor
Lauded as 1999 Ohio Lake Erie Award Winners
TOLEDO, OH - Dr. Peter Fraleigh, Heidelberg College Water Quality
Laboratory and the City of Mentor were lauded for their outstanding
contributions to Lake Erie at the Eighth Annual Ohio Lake Erie Conference
on September 1, 1999 in Huron, OH. Each were recipients of the 1999 Ohio
Lake Erie Award presented by the Ohio Lake Erie Commission.
Since 1995, citizens and organizations whose efforts have greatly enhanced
Lake Erie, and who have devoted their life's work to the environmental
stewardship of Lake Erie have been honored with the Ohio Lake Erie Award.
Based on name submissions and recommendations from its member agencies and
collaborative partners, the Ohio Lake Erie Commission selects recipients of
this distinctive honor.
Dr. Fraleigh, a retired University of Toledo (UT) biology professor,
dedicated much of his life towards
realizing the dream of restoring fishable and swimmable waters in the
Maumee River Area of Concern since he joined the UT faculty in 1972.
As one of the founders of the Maumee Bay Watershed Project, this devoted
limnologist has enabled hundreds of students to experience water sampling
firsthand and learn how these results are valuable in improving water
quality in the Maumee River watershed. Dr. Fraleigh also was instrumental
in the success of the Maumee Remedial Action Plan, where he played a key
role in devising goals and strategies to ultimately restore the Maumee
River Area of Concern. In 1999, an unnamed tributary to the Ottawa River
was named after Dr. Fraleigh in honor of his lifelong work and
determination to improve the quality of life for all people in northwest
Ohio.
The Heidelberg Water Quality Laboratory was founded in 1966 under the
leadership of Dr. David B. Baker. Since then, it has pioneered research
invaluable to our Great Lake. This research includes Lake Erie projects
relating to stream monitoring of water quality, sources of point and
non-point pollution and the Lake Erie Nearshore Study of water chemistry,
plankton and bacteria.
Heidelberg College Water Quality Laboratory's staff is recognized worldwide
for its extensive research findings and successful application of these
results by federal, state and local agencies. The laboratory's detailed
long-term monitoring of many Lake Erie tributaries for nutrients,
pesticides and suspended solids has provided Ohio resource managers with
one of the most extensive datasets in the world for analyzing how land use
influences water quality throughout a watershed. Numerous environmental and
agricultural programs have evolved based on the cutting-edge research
results produced by the faculty at this state-of-the-art facility in
Tiffin, Ohio.
The administration of the City of Mentor, along with Mentor City Council
and the lakeside community's citizens, has worked diligently and invested
more than $10 million to preserve the Mentor Lagoons. This 480-acre
parcel is one of the few remaining undeveloped properties along Lake Erie's
shoreline and will greatly enhance recreational opportunities for the
citizens of Ohio as well as protect an ecological sensitive habitat. The
City of Mentor is commended for preserving this lakefront and providing
many unique environmental and public use benefits. Mentor Lagoons features
a mile of undisturbed sandy beach, 80 acres of wetlands, a protected harbor
for hundreds of pleasure boats and hundreds of acres of upland lake plain
woods. The area is also home to many threatened and endangered plants and
animals.
-30-
Debbie Katterheinrich
Public Information Specialist
Ohio Lake Erie Commission
One Maritime Plaza, 4th Floor
Toledo, OH 43604-1866
419/245-2514
fax: 419/245-2519
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