1) For your information, attached is a species list from the May 5, 2007 Cinco de Mayo Migration event at the Dike 14 Nature Preserve.

2) The Ohio Department of Natural Resources Office of Coastal Management has developed the "Ohio Coastal Atlas" Second Edition to map and provide geographically-referenced information about the coast of Lake Erie and highlight the many tools and resources for the Lake Erie Watershed. The Atlas is available online at www.ohiodnr.com/coastal/gis.

Be sure to check the "Habitat" section that mentions the Dike 14 Nature Preserve.

3) Environmental testing and a risk assessment are being conducted because of the source of the dredgings. Partners Environmental Consulting, Inc. from Solon, Ohio is the contractor for the environmental testing and risk assessment, working with The Cuyahoga Soil and Water Conservation District. The US Environmental Protection Agency has granted funds of $200,000 for the Dike 14 brownfield assessment and risk analysis.

Partners Environmental Consultants sent the required Quality Assurance Project Plan (QAPP) and Sampling Analysis to the USEPA on January 2, 2007 for approval. Once approved, the field work, including ground water and soil sampling, can begin. The projected start date was spring 2007.

An 8-acre landfill is part of Dike 14. The landfill was used from 1968 to 1970. Any disturbance to a landfill must receive authorization from the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency before the work begins in accordance with Ohio Administrative Code 3745-27-13, commonly called Rule 13.


This project is currently on schedule. The field work was mostly done before the spring bird nesting season. Progress reports are posted at cuyahogaswcd.org. 


4) The city has announced plans for a 10-foot wide (asphalt) multipurpose bicycle path on the Dike 14 Nature Preserve (.38 mi. in length from gate to the 'beak' at a cost of $205,100)


Here is the link to the city's plan: http://planning.city.cleveland.oh.us/cwp/bikepath.htm. You can download the master plan from this site.


If anyone cares to blog regarding this proposal, here is the link on Green City Blue Lake.
www.gcbl.org/transportation/bikes/bikes-and-the-mayors-capital-budget

5) Recent Plain Dealer article on Dike 14:

Former landfill hosts wildlife in urban setting
Public invited to observe Dike 14's transformation
Saturday, May 05, 2007
Tom Breckenridge
Plain Dealer Reporter

How could something so nasty be so glorious?

Time and nature have largely healed the environmental wounds at Dike 14, the former dump for polluted river dredging that now holds promise as a nature preserve on Lake Erie.

From 7:30 to 11 a.m. today, the public can take hikes, bird walks and boat tours at the 88-acre site, north of Gordon State Park at the end of Martin Luther King Jr. Drive .

The event is sponsored by more than a dozen governmental and nonprofit entities that yearn to open the site year-round to walkers, bird watchers, lake enthusiasts and students.

"It's one of the only unobstructed views along the [urban] lakefront," said Chris Trepal, executive director of the Earth Day Coalition. "There's a million-dollar view of the skyline. You can't believe you're only three miles from downtown."

Closed as a landfill in 1999, Dike 14 hosts a diversity of habitats, including grasslands, young forests, meadows, mudflats and wetlands.

The Audobon Society has named it an Important Bird Area, critical as a stopover for migrating birds. During last year's public tours, Dike 14 visitors cataloged 80 bird species, according to Trepal.

But the site remains fenced off year-round, mainly because of what lurks beneath.

Eight acres to the west were once used as a solid-waste landfill. Two 500-foot-long ships are buried in the site. The river dredgings are tainted with a variety of chemicals, including arsenic, cadmium and mercury.

Results from dozens of soil samples - from the surface to four feet down - will be available soon, under a $200,000 grant from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

The tests will help determine how the site can be used, according to Janice Rybka, of the Cuyahoga Soil and Water Conservation District.

She, Trepal and others prefer a low-impact, passive use of the site, with boardwalks, interpretive signs and benches.

The city has a $4.6 million plan for the area that includes picnic areas, bike-and-hike trails and a giant land mound to view the lake and skyline.

Those efforts would be too invasive, Trepal said.

Depending on what soil tests show, she believes the site could open as a nature preserve in two years.

To reach this Plain Dealer reporter:
tbreckenridge AT plaind.com, 216-999-4695

Earth Day Coalition provides education, inspires leadership and encourages action for a healthy environment.

Chris Trepal, Executive Director
Earth Day Coalition
3606 Bridge Avenue
Cleveland, OH 44113-3314