State officials have opened up a competitive grant program for river cleanup projects.
People can buy a special fundraising license plate in Michigan. It’s called the water quality protection plate and it funds small grants to local governments for river cleanup projects.
Bill Dimond is with the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality. He says the DEQ collects the fees from those license plates. Then an agency called the Great Lakes Commission decides who receives the grants. The cities and towns have to provide 25%.
“A good applicant has good match funds, they’ll engage a lot of volunteers in the program and they’ll clean up stretches of river that really need it,” says Dimond.
This year, 25-thousand dollars is available. The application deadline is January 22nd.
