ROCHESTER, N.Y. — After nearly four long decades of cleanup and restoration of the Rochester Embayment, the area has finally been taken off the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's list of “areas of concern" on the Great Lakes affected by historical contamination. 

The waters have undergone a remarkable recovery. 

What You Need To Know

  • Nearly $14 million in GLRI cleanup funding results in delisting New York’s second area of concern

  • Federal funding is provided through the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative as part of a larger effort to restore and protect the Great Lakes. The GLRI was launched in 2010 as a non-regulatory program to accelerate efforts to protect and restore the largest system of fresh surface water in the world

  • In February 2022, President Joe Biden and EPA Administrator Regan announced a $1 billion investment from President Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law to significantly accelerate cleanup and restoration of the Great Lakes

“Through extensive scientific assessments, remedial sediment remediation activities, that each of the goals or targets for restoration that were identified have been achieved,” Department of Environmental Conservation Great Lakes program director Shannon Dougherty said.

In 1987, the United States and Canada identified the Rochester Embayment, along with over 43 other areas, as “areas of concern” on the Great Lakes. 

“This was likely due and this was due to a long history of legacy contamination coming from a variety of industrial sources due to manufacturing processes and other inputs that really had been uncontrolled and unregulated for many years prior to the passage of the Clean Water Act,” Dougherty said.

At the time, officials identified multiple problems. Dougherty says several of those issues include warnings to not to eat the fish due to its pollution, beach closings related to water quality and the loss of species diversity. 

“The habitat was just as dense as monotypic stands of cattail and this didn't provide the openings needed that these species need to breed and to use for migration,” New York State Department of Environmental Conservation wildlife biologist Heidi Kennedy said. 

A Monroe County-led committee developed and carried out an action plan to clean up and restore the Embayment, working alongside local, state and federal groups.

“I worked with a variety of different partners to implement these projects on the ground,” Kennedy said. "I worked with partners from Army Corps of Engineers and SUNY Brockport for monitoring Ducks Unlimited, the Nature Conservancy, the Fish and Wildlife Service. I worked with all of these different partners to plan, design and implement the projects on the ground. So I provided information as far as wildlife species needs and how to best improve the habitat for these species. We monitored the fish and the birds and the water quality, all of these things in order to make sure that what we did met our goals.”

The EPA says it is the seventh of the U.S. sites to be delisted.

“We recognize that a lot has been achieved under the area of concern program, but there's a lot more work to be done and we've got the momentum and the energy and the partnership in place to do it,” Dougherty said. “So we will be continuing to move that work forward.”

The 35-square-mile bay on Lake Ontario’s south shore is home to many communities, who have felt the effects of the contamination for decades. Once again they can have access and look forward to something that they have been longing for, for years.

“We have 20% of the world's surface, fresh water in our backyard,” Dougherty said. “And so there are a variety of things we can do, whether it's looking at our own property, our own home, and ensuring that we're continuing to develop our communities in ways that support ecological health.”