Last week, the Cuyahoga County Soil & Water Conservation District (CCSWCD) — the fiscal agent for efforts to advance Dike 14 as a natural park— was awarded a USEPA Brownfields grant of $200,000 to perform an environmental assessment and risk analysis for the former dredge disposal facility. Securing the grant is a major step toward making Dike 14 a nature preserve with public access.

"Now we can survey the whole 88 acres and find out, are there hotspots (about which) we need to be concerned where we want to use the site?“ says CSWCD’s Jan Rybka. “We can breath a sigh of relief, do this assessment, and keep the momentum going.”