WQOW TV: Eau Claire, WI NEWS18 News, Weather, and SportsWis. seeks federal funding under Great Lake Restoration Initiative

Wis. seeks federal funding under Great Lake Restoration Initiative

Madison (News Release) - Wisconsin is making the most of a historic opportunity to tap into $475 million in federal funding set aside for President Obama's Great Lakes Restoration Initiative in 2010.

An estimated 400 applications were submitted by Wisconsin governments and groups to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to meet the Jan. 29, 2010, deadline for the first big chunk of money the EPA will award.

EPA has $120 million to award in this first round, and is expected to issue another call for competitive grant applications this spring for another $100 million. Other federal agencies will be seeking grant applications from states as well for their portion of Great Lakes Restoration Initiative funding.

"We have an incredible opportunity to get some great work done on the Great Lakes," says Department of Natural Resources Secretary Matt Frank. "We're really proud of the collaboration between DNR, local governments, tribes and others that makes Wisconsin's strong application package."

The DNR submitted applications for 40 different projects, and staff in the agency's Office of Great Lakes estimate that Native American tribes, universities, local governments and conservation groups submitted 350 or so, according to Steve Galarneau, working in the DNR Office of the Great Lakes.

Potential applicants voluntarily shared their proposals with DNR. Galarneau and other DNR Great Lakes staff reviewed scores of the applications that groups and governments were planning to submit. The idea was to facilitate the process to avoid duplication and improve coordination of projects, to make sure the grant applications were as strong as possible, and to align projects with the 2009 Wisconsin Great Lakes Strategy finalized last year to carry out in Wisconsin the priorities identified in the national Great Lakes Strategy.

Frank says that such work helped Wisconsin submit grant proposals that will compete. "We've laid the groundwork with our partners so that Wisconsin can carry out the Great Lakes Strategy hammered out with the other Great Lakes states over the last several years," he says.

EPA's grant process called for projects that addressed one or more of the five focus areas including toxic substances and geographic "Areas of Concern" where contaminated sediments remain buried in harbors; invasive species; runoff pollution and the health of near-shore areas; restoration and protection of wildlife and their habitat; and projects calling for monitoring, evaluating and communicating projects funded through the initiative.

Galarneau said that the grant applications submitted from Wisconsin included major initiatives to:

• Identify the sources of pollution on Great Lakes beaches and to fix those problems.
• Improve fish and wildlife habitat and reduce runoff pollution in the Chequamegon Bay, Lake Superior, and other watersheds in the Great Lakes.
• Implement critical projects to reduce runoff pollution to the Fox River and Green Bay.
• Prevent the introduction and spread of aquatic invasive species.
• Restore Wisconsin's five designated "Areas of Concern" containing contaminated sediments. Those areas are in Superior, Marinette, Green Bay, Sheboygan and Milwaukee.

"We think we've got a good shot at brining a substantial amount of money to Wisconsin --- and showing real results that the people of Wisconsin will see in water quality, public health, fisheries and wildlife," Frank says.

Wisconsin has more than 1,000 miles of shoreline along Lake Michigan and Lake Superior, more than 30 percent of the state's land area lies within the Great Lakes basin and half of the state's population lives in the basin.

EPA is expected to announce winners of this first round of grants beginning in March.