A $195,355 grant has been awarded to The Watershed Center Grand Traverse Bay to begin work on a "healthy beaches" project aimed at improving water quality.

The state Department of Environmental Quality announced last week that the center in Elmwood Township was one of 14 agencies awarded grants totalling $3.5 million.

Sarah U’Ren, the center’s program director, applied for the grant.

“It will be matched at another $78,000 raised locally, so we’ll have about $274,000 to kick off our ‘healthy beaches’ program,” U’Ren said.

A major portion of the grant will be focused on tracking the source of E. coli contamination identified at two sites on East Grand Traverse Bay: East Bay Park and the Traverse City State Park.

“We want to determine what the sources are whether they are human or animal,” U’Ren said.

Grant funding will also go toward an outreach program for local government and residents about how beaches can best be kept clean. It could include model ordinances similar to one adopted earlier this year by the City of Traverse City that bans the feeding of waterfowl within 500 feet of the water. Pet waste “stations” at area beaches are also expected to be installed to encourage proper disposal.

Specific to Leelanau County, the agency will conduct an assessment of “impervious surfaces” near beaches in Greilickville and the villages of Suttons Bay and Northport.

“We’ve done some work with stormwater in the City of Traverse City and realize the impact it could have on smaller communities,” U’Ren said.
“They don’t engineers available. So we would like to help them identify potential (run off) sites which could impact their beaches and help them improve water quality.”

The grant-funded effort is expected to begin in July, U’Ren said.