LANSING – Great Lakes Water Quality Fund grants totaling $26.4 million will help 67 communities, including projects in Cadillac, Leelanau and in Grant Traverse, complete improvement efforts.

Clean up targets include Lake Leelanau and the Upper Manistee watershed.

The grants from the departments of Environmental Quality (DEQ) and Treasury will cover most of the costs of planning and designing each project.           

Then the communities are eligible for low-interest loans for financing the construction of wastewater building projects and non-point source water quality improvement efforts.

“The grant is kind of a feeder for the other two loan programs,” said the DEQ’s Chip Heckathorn.

The loan programs help finance two types of projects. One type is publicly owned wastewater facilities, such as sewers, treatment plants and pump stations. The other is non-point sourced pollution control projects, such as cleaning up watersheds.

Non-point source pollution is caused rain, melting snow or wind carry pollutants off the land and into lakes, rivers and other bodies of water.

“We haven’t had nearly as much interest on that side of the equation as we have on the conventional treatment facility side,” said Heckathorn. “But nonetheless, we have some communities looking at projects to improve non-point sources of pollution.”

Among the recipients taking advantage of non-point source pollution control grants are the Leelanau and the Grand Traverse regional land conservancies.

The Leelanau Conservancy was awarded $447,500 to focus mainly on Lake Leelanau. The Grand Traverse unit received $215,000 to focus on the upper Manistee River watershed.

The Lake Leelanau plan provides for the establishment of conservation easements to prevent sedimentation, habitat loss and thermal pollution.

The Upper Manistee River water quality is threatened by sediment, nutrients, thermal pollution, oils and greases. The Grand Traverse regional land conservancy will acquire 400 acres in conservation easements in order to preserve the watershed.

Cadillac will receive $394,990 to design improved public wastewater facilities. It had to submit a detailed plan that was reviewed as a part of the grant application.

“If you look at other funds, such as the Drinking Water Revolving Fund, they’ve always covered engineering and the State Revolving Fund hasn’t,” said Larry Campbell, Cadillac’s director of utilities. “So this was the opportunity to get grant money because we’re looking at a $4 million project here.”

The 67 grants total $26.4 million and cover up to 90 percent of the costs incurred by local governments.

A second set of grants will be awarded in January 2007. The DEQ has 40 additional applications.