Buffalo To Reduce Lake Erie Pollution With Grant from the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has awarded the City of Buffalo, NY, a $500,000 grant from the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative (GLRI) that will be used in conjunction with another $500,000 in funding from Empire State Development to provide green infrastructure in an effort to minimize polluting stormwater runoff into Lake Erie.

Space view of the Great Lakes.

Empire State Development is New York State’s chief economic development agency that works to promote the growth of the state economy through loans, grants, tax credits, and other forms of financial assistance to projects and initiatives that will create business growth and job creation.

A major focus of this project will be building a green infrastructure along a one-mile stretch of Buffalo’s Niagara Street that’s part of the Great Lakes Seaway Trail and National Scenic Byway. This area currently accumulates untreated stormwater that drains directly into the Black Rock Navigation Channel and the Niagara River.

Northern waterfront of the Niagara River. Photo from Wikimedia.org.

The EPA says the project will include the installation of porous asphalt, stormwater planters, rain gardens, and the reduction of impervious pavements. The new project is expected to capture stormwater from about 15 acres along Niagara Street and result in the reduction of about 5 million gallons of stormwater runoff per year.

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Hurricane Irene’s Runoff Temporarily Closing Shellfish Harvesting in Major New York Counties

Shellfish harvesting in Nassau and Suffolk County has been suspended, starting today, by the NYS Dept. of Environmental Conservation as a precautionary measure to protect the public health.

Photo courtesy of Newsday.

The department is worried that stormwater runoffs associated with the hurricane’s heavy rains may have carried bacteria and pathogens into the nearby natural water systems

There is also the concern that coastal flooding caused by the heavy rains combined with the storm surge and new moon may have inundated low-lying septic systems, potentially impacting and “overwhelming” stormwater and wastewater treatment systems.

If the water in the local creeks, coves, and harbors has been contaminated, the “shellfish in the affected areas may be hazardous” to eat, said the department.

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