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Duluth receives U.S. EPA’s first Great Lakes Shoreline Cities Green Infrastructure Grant

Release Date: 02/20/2014
Contact Information: Peter Cassell, 312-886-6234, [email protected]; Anne Rowan, 312-353-9391, [email protected]

(DULUTH – Feb. 20, 2014) The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency today announced the award of a $250,000 Great Lakes Restoration Initiative grant to the City of Duluth to fund green infrastructure projects to improve water quality in the Lake Superior Basin. Duluth is the first of 16 cities to receive funding in the initial round of EPA’s new Great Lakes Restoration Initiative Shoreline Cities grant program.

EPA Region 5 Administrator / Great Lakes National Program Manager Susan Hedman joined Duluth Mayor Don Ness at the Lake Superior Zoo today to announce the grant, which will be used for green stormwater management projects at three locations: the Lake Superior Zoo, the Atlas Industrial Brownfield Park and Chambers Grove Park. The State of Minnesota, the City of Duluth, the Duluth Economic Development Authority, the Duluth Seaway Port Authority, and the U.S. Army Reserve will provide contributions totaling $250,000 to supplement the EPA grant.

“I’m pleased to award EPA’s first Great Lakes Shoreline Cities Green Infrastructure grant to Duluth – a city that recently experienced the devastating effects of an extreme rain event,” said Hedman. “This grant will be used to fund stormwater management projects that will improve water quality in the Lake Superior Basin.”

“We are very grateful for the EPA’s support. This is a tremendous opportunity for the City of Duluth and the Lake Superior Basin,” said Duluth Mayor Don Ness. “By constructing green stormwater management infrastructure at Chambers Grove Park, the Lake Superior Zoo, and the Atlas Industrial Brownfield Park, we will greatly reduce the amount of untreated stormwater discharged into the St. Louis River and into the Lake Superior Basin.”

In the coming weeks, EPA will award Great Lakes Restoration Initiative Shoreline Cities Green Infrastructure Grants to 15 additional cities on the U.S. side of the Great Lakes. These grants will be used to fund up to 50 percent of the cost of rain gardens, bioswales, green roofs, porous pavement, greenways, constructed wetlands, stormwater tree trenches and other green infrastructure projects on public property that are designed to improve water quality in the Great Lakes Basin.

To find more information about the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative or Shoreline Cities Green Infrastructure Grants, visit www.glri.us.