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EPA Awards More Than $300,000 to Paul Smith’s College to Control Invasive Species; Grant is One of Nine Awarded to New York for Great Lakes Restoration Work

Release Date: 08/19/2011
Contact Information: Jennifer May, (212) 637-3658, [email protected]

(New York, N.Y.) The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency awarded Paul Smith’s College in the Adirondacks a $332,869 grant to implement a recreational boat inspection program that will prevent the spread of aquatic invasive species – including zebra mussels, spiny water flea and Eurasian water milfoil plants – in the headwaters of eastern Lake Ontario in the western Adirondack Park. Invasive species are a problem in much of the Great Lakes region, but have largely not reached eastern Lake Ontario or its surrounding watersheds.

“Protecting and restoring the health of the Great Lakes is a priority for EPA and the Obama Administration, and this grant to Paul Smith’s College will help prevent invasive species like zebra mussels – already a problem throughout the Great Lakes – from reaching eastern Lake Ontario watersheds,” said EPA Regional Administrator Judith A. Enck. “The boat inspection program that this grant will fund is a way to address the problem of invasive species before it has a chance to reach eastern Lake Ontario watersheds.”

Beginning next year, staff from Paul Smith’s College’s Adirondack Watershed Institute will inspect watercraft in the Oswegatchie River, Raquette River and Black River watersheds for aquatic invasive species. The inspections are voluntary, and boaters who are found to have invasive species on their boats will be asked to remove them before putting their boat in the water. The project is part of an integrated approach to invasive species management and safeguards public waterways within the Great Lakes basin in the long term. Paul Smith’s College has been helping manage a similar program in the Lake Champlain watershed since 2007.

In addition to Paul Smith’s College, other projects being funded in New York, include:

• New York State Department of Environmental Conservation project to reassess sources of toxic chemicals that have polluted the Niagara River; $902,573.
• Niagara County Soil and Water Conservation District’s work to coordinate the Great Lakes Legacy Act remedial investigation project for an area of the Eighteen Mile Creek that has been severely polluted during the next five years; $497,085.
• University of Rochester project to evaluate fish contaminant levels in severely degraded sections of the Genesee River and Lake Ontario, which together are known as the Rochester Embayment; $307,487.
• The Nature Conservancy project to establish monitoring protocols for wetlands near Lake Ontario and provide the International Joint Commission for the Great Lakes information to develop a plan to managing lake levels in Lake Ontario that can be adjusted based on ongoing assessments of the lake; $295,495.
• New York State Department of Environmental Conservation project to produce updated fish contaminant data for chemicals that impact human and ecosystem health in the St. Lawrence River; $250,000.
• Rochester Institute of Technology project to identify opportunities to reduce toxic chemical releases, energy consumption and water usage, and operational costs at four paper manufacturing companies; $200,000.
• Buffalo Niagara Riverkeeper project to provide teachers with content and methods for conducting watershed education relating to the Buffalo River, Niagara River, Eighteen Mile Creek, and Rochester Embayment; $168,895.
• Rochester Institute of Technology workshops to educate homeowners on green cleaning, household hazardous waste and pharmaceuticals, and household products; $104,192.