GLIN==> Ohio Lake Erie Commission Funds Projects to Promote Regional Collaboration & Advance Research on New Technologies

 NEWS RELEASE

 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

 June 9, 2009

 

OLEC Funds Projects to Promote Regional Collaboration, Advance Research on
New Technologies

TOLEDO, OH - The Ohio Lake Erie Commission (OLEC) will provide grants for
four studies that will enhance regional collaboration, study environmental
concerns along the lake and provide educational resources for those in the
watershed.

On June 3, OLEC members approved the latest round of Lake Erie Protection
Fund small grants. The grants fund a variety of projects that provide direct
benefit to Lake Erie and its tributary watersheds in Ohio. The fund is
supported by Ohioans through the purchase of the "Erie...Our Great Lake"
license plates that display the Marblehead Lighthouse, or renewal of the
Toledo Harbor Lighthouse plates as designed by noted Lake Erie artist Ben
Richmond. Fifteen dollars from the sale of each plate is invested in the
Lake Erie Protection Fund grants program.

GreenCityBlueLake Institute at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History will
receive $15,000 for a project to help design a process by which planning
agencies in the region can work with local elected officials to explore ways
to collaborate on land-use planning and economic development to enhance the
Lake Erie watershed.

The University of Akron will receive $15,000 for a project in which
researchers will construct and test-deploy a Sensobuoy in Lake Erie. A
Sensobuoy is a sensor platform designed for long-term, unattended monitoring
of the depletion of dissolved oxygen. This is a severe, recurring
environmental problem in Lake Erie and its exact causes and development
patterns are not completely understood. The project, which will be
partnership between The University of Akron and Kent State University, will
monitor the long-term trends in near-shore water quality. 

Kent State University will receive $15,000 for a project aimed at
identifying naturally occurring heterotrophic bacterial species that can
actively remove microcystins from open waters. The findings will serve as
the basis for development of management tools, that could ultimately be used
to remediate the effects of harmful algal blooms (HABs) in drinking water
supplies.

Chagrin River Watershed Partners, Inc. will receive $14,900 for a project
that will develop high quality web resources that link specific community
issues to nonpoint source, storm water management, watershed planning,
balanced growth, sustainability, regional and community events. The grant
will create a Northeast Ohio Clean Water Portal to update CRWP and the
Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District web sites, provide assistance to
individual communities to update their web sites with information and
resource links and develop a survey to assess the effectiveness of the web
resources as educational tools.

The Lake Erie Protection Fund was established to help finance research and
implementation of projects aimed at protecting and preserving Lake Erie and
its watershed.

The Ohio Lake Erie Commission was established for the purpose of preserving
Lake Erie's natural resources, protecting the quality of its waters and
ecosystem and promoting economic development in the region. The director of
the Ohio Department of Natural Resources serves as the commission's
chairman. Additional members include the directors of the state departments
of Transportation, Health, Development, Agriculture and the Ohio
Environmental Protection Agency.

 -30-

For Further Information Contact: 
Edwin J. Hammett, Lake Erie Commission
419. 245. 2514

 

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://www.great-lakes.net/lists/glin-announce/attachments/20090609/fb3423f4/attachment.html 
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: not available
Type: image/gif
Size: 3463 bytes
Desc: not available
Url : http://www.great-lakes.net/lists/glin-announce/attachments/20090609/fb3423f4/attachment.gif