Ohio Digging up Ideas for Beneficial Use of Dredge Material
4/4/16
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MEDIA CONTACT: Dina Pierce
Ohio Digging up Ideas for Beneficial Use of Dredge Material
Workshop to Be Held May 11 in Lorain
Lake Erie is one of Ohio’s greatest assets and its harbors must be dredged regularly to keep ports open for shipping. Much of the material dredged from the lake currently is dumped into the open waters of the lake. However, most of the material could be used for projects to benefit the environment and economy. In addition, Governor Kasich signed Senate Bill 1 into law in 2015, which requires open lake disposal of dredged material to end by July 1, 2020.
Ohio is looking for alternatives to open lake disposal and wants to hear new ideas. To facilitate the discussion, Ohio EPA is holding a dredge material workshop on May 11 at Lorain County Community College. Registration for the “Digging Up Ideas Workshop” is open through April 27. Tickets for the workshop are $50 and include lunch and refreshments.
Anyone with ideas to share or who wants to learn more about dredging and beneficial use of dredge material is encouraged to attend. Public, private and nonprofit stakeholders are in ideal positions to help identify and benefit from beneficial use projects.
The workshop agenda includes sessions on the dredging issue, existing beneficial uses of dredge material and regulatory requirements for beneficial use in Ohio. Afternoon breakout sessions cover opportunities for beneficial use, barriers to use and moving forward to the 2020 deadline.
The day-long workshop runs from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. in The John A. Spitzer Conference Center at Lorain County Community College, 1005 North Abbe Road, Elyria, OH 44035. Go to the Digging Up Ideas Workshop website to register, or register here. Registration closes at 8 p.m. on April 27.
More information on the Ohio EPA’s Lake Erie dredged material program is available online at http://epa.ohio.gov/dir/dredge.
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The Ohio Environmental Protection Agency was created in 1972 to consolidate efforts to protect and improve air quality, water quality and waste management in Ohio. Since then, air pollutants dropped by as much as 90 percent; large rivers meeting standards improved from 21 percent to 89 percent; and hundreds of polluting, open dumps were replaced with engineered landfills and an increased emphasis on waste reduction and recycling.
Ohio Digging up Ideas for Beneficial Use of Dredge Material
Source: Ohio Environmental News