Indiana awards $1.3M for 33 projects to enhance waterways

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) – Indiana has awarded nearly $1.3 million in grants for improvements to lakes and streams, including efforts to stem the flow of damaging nutrients into Lake Erie and Lake Michigan.

The funding from the Department of Natural Resources comes from a fee boat owners pay annually when registering their vessels with the Bureau of Motor Vehicles.

The DNR grants will fund 33 projects in 25 counties and encompass the watersheds of 36 lakes and streams.

Among those projects are efforts to reduce phosphorous levels on Indiana acreage to help reduce the amount of that nutrient entering the western Lake Erie basin and Lake Michigan.

In 2014, Toledo, Ohio, residents faced water shortages due to toxic algae blooms in Lake Erie caused in part by phosphorous originating in Indiana and Ohio.