U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's Boating Infrastructure Grant Program
Congress authorized the Boating Infrastructure Grant Program during the summer of 1998. The program funds construction of facilities to enhance boating for nontrailerable recreational boats (boats 26 feet or more in length) when they are in transient status. The Sport Fishing and Boating Safety Act authorizes this competitive-grant program. Funds come from the Sport Fish Restoration Account of the Aquatic Resources Trust Fund. The funds result from a federal excise tax on fishing equipment and motorboat fuels.
The Sport Fish Restoration Program helped fund installation of boat docks, utilities, fuel stations and other transient boating facilities. The Ohio Division of Watercraft and the city of Toledo completed the construction of Glass City Marina in 2008.
The Ohio Division of Watercraft and the city of Toledo
received the States Organization for Boating Access Award this October while
using federal grant funding to develop Glass City Marina for transient boaters.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s Sport Fish Restoration Fund provided
$374,000 toward construction of new marina facilities. And local sponsors provided $6,335,009
for cleanup of the former electricity plant on the site and construction.
“This award recognizes capstone
projects that use sound engineering principles, innovative and cost-effective
designs and provide long-term benefits for the transient boater,” said Julie
Morin, Boating Infrastructure Grant Program coordinator with the U.S. Fish and
Wildlife Service.
The site of the new marina previously operated as an
electricity plant, operating on refinery oils, hydraulic fluids and coal. The city
of Toledo
remediated the environmentally contaminated site so that it could be
redeveloped for other purposes. Remediated sites take hazardous materials from
environmentally contaminated sites and put them in sites the Environmental
Protection Agency approves.
“Contaminated sites are detrimental to environmental
quality, particularly water and air quality, so cleaning up and transforming
contaminated sites has benefits for humans, wildlife and the environmental as a
whole,” Morin said. “The city of Toledo and the
Ohio Division of Watercraft have taken steps to revive outdoor recreational
boating by providing marina facilities that can be enjoyed by the citizens of Ohio and visitors.”
The Service awarded the Ohio Division of Watercraft the
grant funds in 2005. It used those funds to design and install fuel stations,
restroom and shower facilities, and boat docks and utilities for transient
boaters. With the help of the city of Toledo,
it completed the construction of the marina in 2008.