Today the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced the award of two Great Lakes Restoration Initiative grants, totaling $1.25 million, to Detroit and St. Clair Shores in order to fund green infrastructure projects and improve water quality in the Great Lakes.
“Detroit and St. Clair Shores will use these EPA Great Lakes Restoration Initiative Shoreline Cities grants for green infrastructure projects to prevent stormwater from carrying contamination into the Great Lakes,” said Susan Hedman, the EPA Region 5 Administrator and Great Lakes National Program Manager. “Green infrastructure also helps to prevent the type of flooding that occurs as a result of the increasingly frequent extreme precipitation events that have hit the Midwest in recent years — a pattern may intensify as the result of climate change.”
The $1 million grant awarded to Detroit will be used in two green infrastructure projects in the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department’s Near East Side Drainage District. Both projects will use green infrastructure to reduce the amount of untreated storm water discharged into the city’s combined sewer system. The first project will transform publicly owned vacant lots on Detroit’s lower East Side into green space. The second project will install green infrastructure at Detroit’s Recovery Park.
In St. Clair Shores, the $250,00 grant will be used to install rain gardens and porous pavement at the Kyte Monroe Park. The green infrastructure will prevent approximately 95,000 gallons of polluted storm water from entering Lake St. Clair during significant storms.
For more information on this announcement and the projects in both shoreline cities, visit the EPA’s online newsroom here.
