PHOTO COURTESY OF THE ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY
One of the most environmentally degraded areas in the Great Lakes, Ohio’s Maumee Area of Concern — first identified by the United States and Canada back in the mid-1980s — will once again serve as a healthy habitat for native organisms, thanks to efforts by EPA’s Great Lakes National Program Office.
The $12.1 million cleanup project, which is funded by the federal Great Lakes Restoration Initiative, is using a hydraulic dredge to remove contaminated sediment in a seven-mile stretch of Otter Creek that extends through Toledo and Oregon, Ohio, before flowing into Maumee Bay.
The dredge will remove about 57,000 cubic yards of sediment contaminated with polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and diesel range organics, enough to fill almost three football fields 10 feet high. Contaminated sediment will then be pumped through a submerged pipeline to Toledo-Lucas County Port Authority’s confined disposal facility.
Efforts are expected to be complete by late summer 2021. To learn more, visit epa.gov.
