The Cuyahoga River RAP and the Cuyahoga Valley Initiative are engaging in an historic partnership to improve the conditions of the Lower Cuyahoga's shipping channel, which has deplorable conditions for aquatic life. Years of dredging the river channel to allow ships safe passage and all the industrial pollution has taken its toll. But, the groups endeavored to find a sustainable solution (it has people, planet and profits in mind), and have started experimenting with new, greener ways of building a river channel. The following are two pilot projects under way:

Project for Fish Habitat Pockets:
Mini habitat pockets along the ship channel provide shelter, food, protection for fish populations. The small size and low cost make them feasible in numerous locations, according to Cuyahoga RAP, and eligible for mitigation funds and credits. The plus side is they are build-able within existing sheet steel shoreline configuration.

High Performance Shoreline Management System — The Green Bulkhead:
The shipping channel's sheet steel bulkhead shoreline is wearing out, it's expensive to repair and maintain and offers no improvement to water quality or habitat. Cuyahoga/Lake Erie Environmental Restoration Technology Enterprise Center (CLEERTEC) and the Cuyahoga River Community partners have been funded to develop and test a long-term shoreline restoration system that would provide for a "sustainable, lower cost, high performance ship channel shoreline that accommodates shipping and also provides improved fish passage," according to James White at the Cuyahoga RAP.

The development and evaluation of the “Cuyahoga green bulkhead” received $500,000 in Federal Water Resources Development Act (WRDA) funds in 2006. $1.3 million in Federal Funds are included in the FY 2007 Budget for the project.

Built from natural materials, the green bulkhead will line the 5.5 mile ship channel with an environmentally friendly cost-effective alternative that can be manufactured locally and marketed throughout the Great Lakes and the nation.