Cuyahoga River
Green Bulkheads for a Potential $1B Market
The 112-mile long Cuyahoga River drains 812 square miles and empties into Lake Erie at Cleveland Ohio. Inhabiting the watershed is a population of 2.1 million people mostly in four counties with almost 90 local governments. Site of the infamous fire in 1969 that led to the formation of the U.S. EPA and the Clean Water Act, the Cuyahoga became one of 43 Areas of Concern in the Great Lakes region in 1985. Under the International Joint Commission (an American/Canadian government partnership dedicating to restoring the Great Lakes), a Remedial Action Plan (RAP) was created to eliminate the river’s impairments.
Currently, the Cuyahoga River, which had no fish at the time of the fire, is home to 70 species. (Lake Erie is the most productive of the Great Lakes in terms of commercial fish production.) The Cuyahoga RAP has a 39-member stakeholder Coordinating Committee comprising community groups, individuals, businesses, government agencies, and local officials appointed by the director of Ohio EPA. The Cuyahoga River Community Planning Organization (CRCPO), a non-profit 501(c)(3), formed to implement the RAP, is also the lead partner in the Cuyahoga-American Heritage River Initiative. The mission of the CRCPO/RAP/ is to restore and protect the environmental quality of the Cuyahoga River and selected watersheds that affect the aquatic ecosystems of the immediate Lake Erie shoreline. American Heritage River designation adds to that the expanded mission to integrate economic and cultural revitalization as well. (The Cuyahoga and Detroit Rivers are the only two U.S. rivers that are both American Heritage Rivers and a Great Lakes Area of Concern with a Remedial Action Plan.)
Under the direction of Jim White, executive director, Cuyahoga RAP, and American Heritage River Navigator for the Cuyahoga, the CRCPO recently launched the Cuyahoga/Lake Erie Environmental Resource Technology Center (CLEERTEC), a joint RAP/AHRA initiative to create economic development opportunities through innovative technological solutions for environmental restoration and protection. CLEERTEC’s first project has been to develop Green Bulkheads, prototype high-performance shoreline management systems to replace the aging sheet steel bulkheads that currently line the Cuyahoga’s shipping channel. Green Bulkheads are designed to maintain the integrity of the riverbanks and allow for navigation of large ships, while also providing habitat for aquatic organisms and supporting fish as they migrate to and from Lake Erie and the upper reaches of the Cuyahoga River and its tributaries.
White says, “Environmental restoration is more likely to happen when a project has a perceived economic benefit. The Green Bulkheads project represents a potential $1 billion market in the Great Lakes region alone, where there are 136 ports with steel bulkheads. The project offers environmentally friendly, low-cost alternatives that can be manufactured locally and marketed throughout the nation. Green Bulkheads will have widespread applicability for other rivers with steel bulkheads, such as the Detroit, and in the Chesapeake Bay region and other coastal areas where there are issues of armored shoreline in critical fish habitat areas. There is also a huge global opportunity through the CLEERTEC project to address issues of ballast water and invasive species with innovative technology.”
Primary funding for Green Bulkheads of $495,000 came through the US Army Corps of Engineers for design development, prototype production and field performance evaluations. In-kind match for the project is being provided by Ship Channel stakeholder participation.
ArcelorMittal, as a key stakeholder and Ship Channel user for its steel production operations, has long supported CRCPO efforts to integrate environmental restoration with maritime commerce including significant operating contributions. Through its Corporate Responsibility Program ArcelorMittal Steel provided staff participation in the Green Bulkhead design development program and has also made Ship Channel bulkhead locations available for prototype evaluations. White noted "This kind of highly engaged corporate support really demonstrates corporate responsibility with direct local benefit."
“AHRA helps develop a mechanism for public/private partnerships,” says White. “When ArcelorMittal made its contribution, which came through the company's manager of Corporate Responsibility, we used it as leverage for the match, making their $30,000 contribution worth $90,000 toward the grant. This private investment yielded federal funding and will yield future returns to the regional economy.” ArcelorMittal has also donated a site along the Cuyahoga River for field testing of Green Bulkhead prototypes.
To date, the Green Bulkheads design and development process has yielded three options for installing fish habitat along various segments of the ship channel walls:
Habitat baskets: For walls that are in good condition and can act as anchors for habitat, the design team has invented habitat baskets that can hang on the walls just below the surface of the water. Filled with native wetland plants, the baskets provide habitat and shelter to larval fish migrating downriver toward the Lake.
Pocket habitats: Provides a low cost solution to relieve wall pressure and also produce a mini-wetland at areas of spot failure along the walls.
Tiered wall sections: Can replace sections of failing bulkhead at less cost—about $2,000 per foot—than that of existing bulkhead. The tiered walls also provide safe location for pleasure craft for areas of the river undergoing redevelopment to residential and commercial uses.
The Green Bulkheads project covers all three aspects of the AHRA mission, combining environmental restoration with economic development while also building on Cleveland’s historical roots as a manufacturing center, points out White. “In addition,” he says, “being under the AHRA aegis has made CLEERTEC the only entity in town capable of pulling together the interdisciplinary team of nearly 20 people—including structural engineers, bulkhead engineers, larval fish experts and experts in native plants-- needed to design the project so that it works and also meets regulatory requirements.”
CLEERTEC has received expressions of interest in Green Bulkheads from the Potomac, another American Heritage river, and environmental restoration firms in New York City and Philadelphia. In addition, the city of Toledo, Ohio will be adding Habitat Baskets as part a riverfront revitalization project, and will be working with CLEERTEC on early plant growth evaluations.
Over the long term, White says, “The Green Bulkheads project represents a huge collaboration between regulators, landowners, and beneficiaries. It won’t balance the federal budget, but it can yield tangible dividends to the region and the national economy.”