LUCAS COUNTY, Ohio — Gov. Mike DeWine’s H2Ohio plan is in its third year, working with agriculture to decrease runoff in the Maumee Watershed. By doing that, it will help clean up Lake Erie.
But other changes are coming to Maumee Bay, and not everyone’s happy.
It’s the Cullen Park Wetland Restoration Project in particular.
Through H2Ohio, the port authority and Ohio Department of Natural Resources will dredge parts of the bay near Cullen Park out to Grass Island. They believe it’ll restore wetlands, help filter phosphorous and improve water quality. It's one of 26 projects in the Maumee Watershed.
Everyone agrees we need to clean up Lake Erie. The farmers are trying to do their part through the H2Ohio program. The state has an idea, but the people who live on the Maumee Bay say it’s not the right thing to do and it won’t even be effective.
Richard and Maryann Jankowski have lived in Point Place on the bay for 28 years. The water was up to the seawall. They had a boat out there.
Now? It’s a pile of silt and driftwood.
They get about two Nor’easters a year. Last Friday, winds blew water and debris into a lot of backyards during heavy rainfall and nasty flooding.
Kathy Timman has lived along the bay for 16 years. She and a lot of her neighbors are against the project. One city storm outlet was empty last week before the Nor’easter. Now it’s jammed with driftwood. The city might take months to clear it out.
“Nothing is going to hold up out there even if it goes in and even if it should hold up, which I don’t think it will, it’s diverting the water down the Maumee River so what’s going to be filtered? Nothing. We are going to have stagnant water out here," Timman said.
Ann Foeller is with a group called Stop The Swamp, with 470 members and growing. They know how the water flows. They’re pro-wetlands. Coastal marsh is terrific, she says.
This, she says, is not that.
“This affects the whole Toledo metro area 'cause this is the only public access area to Lake Erie," said Foeller. "It affects Lake Erie environmentalists as a whole, because while the wetlands are being sold as water quality improvement, if you run the numbers or look a little deeper, they may make the problem worse.”
Joe Cappel is with the Port Authority. There’s a disconnect with the Cullen Park neighborhood.
“Wetlands act as what kidneys do for your body. It filters poop, phosphorous out of the water. It's only going to improve water quality," explained Cappel, "and keep in mind these projects, too, are part of a much larger suite of projects under H2Ohio. The program will have a noticeable effect on water quality in Lake Erie."
Stop The Swamp has a public meeting June 10 at 7 p.m. at the Summit Hall.