Legacy Act links

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Ottawa River, Ohio Great Lakes Legacy Act Project area

Fact Sheet

Great Lakes Legacy Act Project to Remove Polluted Sediment, January 2009 (PDF 132 Kb, 2 pages)

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News Release

Ottawa River will be cleaner thanks to Great Lakes Legacy Act, No. 09-OPA010 Release date: 01/29/2009

(pdf, 54 Kb, 2 pages)

Ottawa River, Ohio

Authorized Legacy Act Project Site

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U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Great Lakes National Program Office and several local partners will begin work this spring on a project to remove contaminated sediment from 5.6 miles of the Ottawa River in Toledo, Ohio.

The federal Great Lakes Legacy Act (GLLA) is funding the $43 million project. The Act provides federal money that along with local matching dollars are used to clean up polluted sediment (mud) along the U.S. shores of the Great Lakes. The Ottawa River project calls for the removal of 250,000 cubic yards of sediment contaminated with PCBs and PAHs (polychlorinated biphenyls and polyaromatic hydrocarbons).

The sediment will be hydraulically dredged and transported through a pipeline to a nearby commercial landfill. Some “hot spots” in the river containing hazardous levels of PCBs exist so about 25,000 cubic yards of sediment will be dredged and taken to a specially licensed facility for disposal.

GLLA and the Ottawa River Group will split the cost of the sediment cleanup 50-50. The local consortium consists of Allied Waste Industries Inc., Chrysler LLC, the city of Toledo, DuPont Co., GenCorp Inc., Honeywell International Inc., Illinois Tool Works Inc., United Technologies.

Site preparation work should begin this April with dredging scheduled for August to December.