Ann Arbor, Mich. –​ The Great Lakes Commission (GLC) announced today that it will award more than $1.45 million in grants through the Great Lakes Sediment and Nutrient Reduction Program to reduce the runoff of pollutants such as sediment and nutrients from entering into the Great Lakes and their tributaries.

“For more than three decades, grants under our Great Lakes Sediment and Nutrient Reduction Program have supported local efforts to reduce sediment and nutrient pollution of our Great Lakes,” Timothy Bruno, vice chair of the GLC and Great Lakes Program Coordinator, Interstate Water Resources Management, at the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection. “Community efforts are critical to the lakes’ health. The Great Lakes Commission congratulates the 2024 grantees of this longstanding program and looks forward to their projects’ contribution to a healthier and more resilient Great Lakes basin.”

Each year, the Great Lakes Sediment and Nutrient Reduction Program provides competitive grants to local and state governments, Indigenous Nations, and nonprofit organizations to install erosion and nutrient control practices in the Great Lakes basin, including innovative and unique practices not typically funded by other federal cost-share programs. Since 2016, projects funded by this program have prevented more than 173,000 pounds of phosphorus and more than 337,000 tons of sediment from reaching the Great Lakes.

The 2024 projects continue to promote two approaches: long-term sediment and nutrient management through engagement with the agricultural community and streambank restoration.  The following grants have been awarded:

Since 2010, the U.S. Department of Agriculture – Natural Resources Conservation Service has provided funding for the Great Lakes Sediment and Nutrient Reduction Program under the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative (GLRI). In that time, the GLRI has provided more than $4.1 billion to fund more than 8,100 projects across the Great Lakes region which protect freshwater resources by restoring wetlands, preventing the spread of invasive species, and reducing sediment and nutrients.

More information about the projects is available at www.nutrientreduction.org.

The Great Lakes Commission, led by chair Mary Mertz, director of the Ohio Department of Natural Resources, is a binational government agency established in 1955 to protect the Great Lakes and the economies and ecosystems they support. Its membership includes leaders from the eight U.S. states and two Canadian provinces in the Great Lakes basin. The GLC recommends policies and practices to balance the use, development, and conservation of the water resources of the Great Lakes and brings the region together to work on issues that no single community, state, province, or nation can tackle alone. Learn more at www.glc.org.