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OREGON -- An announcement was made today that organizations are making investments to help preserve Lake Erie. The conference was held at the Lake Erie Center at 6200 Bayshore Road, in Oregon.

At the conference, Cameron Davis, senior advisor to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, commented about the investments. "The investments total more than $5,000,000…that is a good punch to pack against the kinds of problems that we have seen in the past."

The organizations that are investing are the Nature Conservancy, the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Environmental Quality.

Many of Lake Erie’s problems were mentioned.

Davis said, "Algae can choke the life out of Ohio coasts. It can undermine Ohio’s local, coastal economies…threaten public health and can starve Lake Erie of oxygen that is needed for aquatic life."

Congresswoman Marcy Kaptur commented about the Asian Carp DNA findings. "We have had a lot of probes that were done…finding Silver Carp and Asian Carp DNA…we continue to be concerned with evasive species."

Cameron Davis also said, "We have too much algae coming in from fertilizers and other nutrients that wash into our waterways."

The Nature Conservancy is going to help reduce nutrients in the Upper Blanchard River, which is a place that sub-watersheds to the Maumee River watershed.

The Ohio Environmental Protection Agency is to help with the Lucas County Stormwater Demonstration project

The Department of Environmental Quality is going to help reduce nutrients to River Raisin, which is a tributary to Lake Erie.

Laura Factor, Assistant Director of the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency, comments about the investments.

Factor said, "Whether it is addressing legacy issues and our areas of concern, down to addressing the age-old problem of controlling stormwater runoff, this has been a wonderful mechanism for us to be able to obtain funds to really get some of these long-standing problems addressed."