The City of Algoma will receive a $175,000 U.S. EPA grant for improvements at the city’s famed Crescent Beach, according to Jeff Wiswell, city administrator.

The grant is one of the awards announced Aug. 10 by  the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency as part of its Great Lakes Restoration Initiative (GLRI) grants totaling more than $2 million to 13 cities in Indiana, Ohio, Minnesota, New York and Wisconsin. The grants will fund green infrastructure projects that will improve public health and water quality at municipal swimming beaches.

“Algoma will install infiltration basins, rain gardens and permeable pavement at Crescent Beach that will prevent more than 110,000 gallons of untreated runoff from reaching Lake Michigan,” Wiswell said.

The GLRI was launched in 2010 to accelerate efforts to protect and restore the largest system of fresh surface water in the world. It is the largest investment in the Great Lakes in more than two decades. GLRI resources are used by EPA and ten other federal agencies to strategically target the biggest threats to the Great Lakes ecosystem.

This effort which is part of the GLRI’s Shoreline Cities program, will fund green infrastructure projects on public property. The projects include rain gardens, bioswales, green roofs, porous pavement, greenways, constructed wetlands, stormwater tree trenches and other green infrastructure measures designed to improve water quality at locations throughout the Great Lakes basin.

Wiswell also paid special tribute to the Fund for Lake Michigan for awarding the City of Algoma a $75,000 grant earlier this year to assist with the project.   The City is also working with other potential partners to meet its fundraising goal for the project.

Tourism has become an increasingly larger part of the city’s economy over the last several decades with the growth of its world class sport fishing industry.   The sport fishing fleet located in Algoma is still one of the largest on Lake Michigan and the rest of the Great Lakes.

Algoma Mayor Wayne R. Schmidt thanked Administrator Wiswell for his diligent grant writing efforts.   He also thanked the city management team and area volunteers for their role in working to obtain this major federal grant.

He paid special tribute to Cathy and John Pabich, with the Friends of Crescent Beach, and James Kettler, Executive Director of the Lakeshore Natural Resource Partnership for their great work.

For more information on this grant, visit https://www.epa.gov/newsreleases/epa-awards-13-great-lakes-restoration-initiative-shoreline-cities-grants-totaling-over

This article originally appeared on Green Bay Press Gazette: Algoma receives $175,000 EPA grant