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EPA Announces Great Lakes Restoration Initiative Grant to Ohio Lake Erie Commission to Study Causes of Harmful Algal Blooms and Hypoxia

Release Date: 11/13/2013
Contact Information: Peter Cassell, 312-886-6234, [email protected]

CHICAGO - The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency today announced a $500,000 Great Lakes Restoration Initiative grant to the Ohio Lake Erie Commission to study the causes of harmful algal blooms and low oxygen levels in Lake Erie.

“This EPA Great Lakes Restoration Initiative grant will fund crucial scientific work to answer questions about the role of nutrients, such as phosphorus, in harmful algal blooms that occur in the Western Lake Erie Basin,” said EPA Region 5 Administrator/Great Lakes National Program Manager Susan Hedman. “The answers to these questions will help target efforts to protect the western basin and to restore the entire Lake Erie ecosystem.”

“Dealing with harmful algal blooms must be a top priority,” said U.S. Rep. Marcy Kaptur. “Along with invasive species, they are the most serious threats to the Lake Erie ecosystem.”

Specifically, this GLRI project will:

· Track the movement of various forms of phosphorus (e.g., soluble, particulate) and nitrogen in the Western Lake Erie Basin;
· Assess nutrient sources (by type and location) that contribute to formation of harmful algal blooms in the Western Lake Erie Basin, and
· Examine the extent to which phosphorus loading in the Western Lake Erie Basin contributes to low oxygen levels (hypoxia) in the Central Lake Erie Basin.