GEAUGA COUNTY, OHIO – Today, Congressman Dave Joyce (OH-14) announced $300,000 in funding through the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative’s (GLRI) Sediment and Nutrient Reduction program to reduce sediment pollution in Talcott Creek in Thompson, Ohio. This funding is authorized through Congressman Joyce’s Great Lakes Restoration Initiative (GLRI) Act of 2020 which was signed into law in 2021.  

“Since coming to Congress, I have worked with local and federal agencies to protect the quality of our freshwater sources in Northeast Ohio,” said Congressman Joyce. “This funding awarded through the GLRI will continue these efforts by adding wetland, forest, and meadow habitats along Talcott Creek, significantly reducing runoff. In turn, this will restore native vegetation and wildlife and reduce sediment pollution to bodies of water downstream. In Congress, I will remain committed to protecting and advocating for the Great Lakes.”

“For more than three decades, grants under our Great Lakes Sediment and Nutrient Reduction Program have supported local efforts to reduce sediment and nutrient pollution of our Great Lakes,” Timothy J. Bruno, vice chair of the Great Lakes Commission and Great Lakes Program Coordinator, Interstate Water Resources Management, at the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection. “Community efforts are critical to the lakes’ health. The Great Lakes Commission congratulates the 2024 grantees of this longstanding program and looks forward to their projects’ contribution to a healthier and more resilient Great Lakes basin.”

BACKGROUND: 

This project will provide $300,000 for work in Ohio’s 14th Congressional district. Talcott Creek, an EPA-designated cold-water stream and tributary to the Grand River, has been channelized and ditched, degrading water quality, habitat, and morphologic condition of the stream. This project will restore a more natural channel geometry along 1,200 linear feet of Talcott Creek, along with a 40–60-foot floodplain. The agricultural fields on both sides of the stream (47 acres total) will be converted to wetland, forest and meadow habitats, significantly reducing runoff and associated nutrient and sediment loading into Talcott Creek.

The completed project is estimated to reduce sediment loading by 142 tons per year and phosphorus loading by 87 pounds per year, plus stabilize 1,200 feet of streambank. 

Earlier this year, Rep. Joyce introduced legislation to reauthorize and expand funding for the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative, which is set to expire at the end of FY 2026, for an additional five years through FY 2031. The bill increases the current authorization level from $475 million to $500 million in FY 2026.