Climate change is altering Lake Erie: warmer water temperatures increase the risk of toxic algal blooms. Less ice cover in the winter can lead to more soil erosion. And its water levels are fluctuating at a faster rate.
A new program at Ohio State University College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences (CFAES) will prepare a new workforce of scientists, engineers and data analysts to help communities navigate these impacts.
It’s part of a larger, national push to develop a ‘climate ready’ workforce. Ohio is one of nine states and territories selected to receive Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) funding from the federal government. It will get nearly $5 million dollars to train 100 workers to better protect its Great Lake.
Lorrayne Miralha, Ohio State University assistant professor of watershed modeling, will oversee the program. She said the four-year program will tackle everything from water quality monitoring, stormwater risk assessment and environmental justice.
“Always with that solution mindset of ‘What are the changes we need to implement in policies and management practices that could improve the response to climate in the system?’” Miralha said.
Worth protecting
With the help of Lorain Community College and Central State University, the program will recruit from communities surrounding the Lake Erie Watershed in Lorain, Toledo, Sandusky and Cleveland.
The Great Lakes are the largest freshwater system in the world, and a lot of people rely on Lake Erie, Miralha said. There are around 11 million people in its coastal communities that get their drinking water from the lake.
“We are talking about a big fresh water system that supports a large amount of population in the United States and also in the globe because of all the trade. It is a freshwater system worth funding and help,” Miralha said.
Miralha said climate change is increasingly hurting these communities by contributing to increased toxic algal blooms, which can cause illness in humans and animals. These harmful blooms also affect recreation and can hurt local business. The Lake Erie watershed brings in more than $11 billion in annual revenue.
Green skills
Miralha said there’s demand in northeast Ohio for hydrologists, environmental engineers and stormwater management professionals that can help manage nutrient runoff in the Lake Erie watershed.
The program aims to fill that workforce by offering specialized summer fellowships and fully-funded graduate assistantships to students and professionals within northeast Ohio. Miralha said it won’t just prepare them to take on jobs in water management, but also to build better policies to protect the watershed.
“We are talking about a different area of people that will feed into stormwater systems jobs and also government jobs and consulting companies, developing solutions for these kinds of problems.”
A foundation for the future
At the end of the program, participants will be connected to jobs at local utility companies, water conservation districts and water quality commissions across the region. The Cleveland Water Department, the Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District and the Ohio Lake Erie Commission are just a few of the partners in the training program.
Miralha hopes the 100 new people in the workforce is just the start of the program. She said OSU will use the curriculum it develops with this federal funding to build a program that can continue beyond the project’s 2028 end date, and that they can share with partners across the Great Lakes region.
“You can’t see the results of a solution that will mitigate climate issues in only four years,” Miralha said. “You have to be patient.”
