Sewer District Accepting Grant Applications for Local GI Projects

The Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District’s Board of Trustees voted to approve the funding necessary to support the “Green Infrastructure Grant Program” for 2014. This new grant program will award a maximum of $250,000 to support green infrastructure (GI) projects throughout the Sewer District’s Combined Sewer Service Area. The Sewer District actively engages in green infrastructure projects that promote smart stormwater solutions.

Green Infrastructure includes a range of stormwater control measures – using plant/soil systems, permeable pavement or other forms of stormwater harvest and reuse – to store, infiltrate, or evapotranspirate stormwater and reduce flows to the combined sewer system. The Sewer District is currently designing 12 large-scale green infrastructure projects within the combined sewer area; these first projects, to be completed by 2019 at an estimated cost of $86 million, are designed to reduce combined sewer overflows by 44 million gallons annually.

“We must consider the priorities of each neighborhood and make sure that our green infrastructure plans meet the vision of the community in which these projects will be implemented,” said Kyle Dreyfuss-Wells, Manager of Watershed Programs. “The new Green Infrastructure Grant Program allows us to further engage the Collinwood community by supporting smaller, distributed projects throughout our combined sewer area.”

The Green Infrastructure Grants Program funds projects that not only provide outstanding on-the-ground techniques for stormwater management, but increase public awareness of these stormwater control measures. Qualified applicants must represent the local member community, a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization or business working in partnership with their community. In addition, all projects must be located within the Sewer District’s Combined Sewer Service Area; Collinwood, Waterloo and Northeast Shores are all in the Combined Sewer Service Area.

The Sewer District’s Watershed Programs Department administers this grant programs in-house and applications are due August 31, 2014. Individuals and organizations wishing to receive information about the program should contact Linda Mayer at 440.253.2147 or mayerl@neorsd.org.

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Volume 6, Issue 6, Posted 1:56 PM, 07.12.2014