The US Environmental Protection Agency announced the award of 14 Great Lakes Restoration Initiative (GLRI) grants of more than $17 million.

The money granted will go to fund projects that aim at improving the water quality of Great Lakes by preventing phosphorus runoff and soil erosion that contributes to algal blooms and by reducing suspended sediments in Great Lakes tributaries.

It has been told that the projects funded by the GLRI grants will be implemented by conservation organizations and by state and local governments. Four of the grants were awarded within Ohio.

U. S. Rep. Dave Joyce, R-Russell Township, said in a statement that these four grants are a clear reason of why they need to reduce the gas to secure funds for GLRI.

"I will keep doing everything I can in Congress to lead this fight, so that we can see more of these success stories in our backyard", he said.

Furthermore, Chagrin River Watershed Partners, Inc. will receive $178,479. It will be partnering with the city of Wickliffe and Cleveland Metroparks on a project to restore 640 feet of streams and wetlands in the Deer Creek/Gully Brook watershed.

There project would aim at reducing the soil erosion and the quality of nutrients and streambed sediment that are entering the Chagrin River and Lake Erie.

Keely Davidson-Bennett, a Chagrin River Watershed Partners program associate, said the project needs work at Wickliffe's Green Ridge Golf Course and at the Manakiki Golf Course in Willoughby Hills that is owned by Cleveland Metroparks.

The Western Reserve Land Conservancy was awarded a grant of $750,000 to purchase 1,000 acres of easements in northern Ohio's Grand River watershed.

This grants aims to protecting five miles of streams and 400 acres of wetlands and to reduce nutrient runoff and soil erosion.

The state agency also was awarded $689,060 to expand agricultural conservation practices to 8,000 acres of cropland in five northern Ohio watersheds that flow into the Sandusky River.