Eco Meet CLE - Cleveland's Blue Economy

Our region's water isn’t just running through our taps; it is shaping our region and our future. Cleveland is a waterfront city, and in this episode, you will hear how technology, entrepreneurship, destination development, maritime trade, and recreation are blossoming under our culture of freshwater stewardship. 

This recording is from Eco Meet CLE, a gathering of local sustainability leaders held on November 18th at Great Lakes Brewing Company. Some have called us a beer-drinking group with a sustainability problem. It works. Eco Meet events are a fun way for people to connect and learn about impactful work in a fun and casual setting. 

The topic for the night was our Blue Economy, and we brought together several speakers who reflected on their role in Cleveland's water economy and how this shared asset, which must be protected, makes our waterfront such a vibrant and engaging space for residents, visitors, business, and career development. Our panelists included:

1. Emily Bacha, Director of the Cuyahoga County Fresh Water Institute
2. Samantha Martin, Director of Communications and Engagement, Cleveland Water Alliance
3. Kierra Cotton, Marketing and Communications Manager, the Port of Cleveland
4. Captain Drew Ferguson, Founder and CEO of Argonaut
5. Kate Wells, Manager of Environmental Stewardship and Quality, Interlake Steamship Company
6. Max Pennington, Co-Founder of CLEANR 

 If you care about clean water, good jobs, and resilient cities, this story is yours. Follow, share with a friend who loves Lake Erie, and leave a quick review to help more people discover how Northeast Ohio turns stewardship into strength.

Chapters

• 0:21 About this Episode and our Guests
• 2:15 Cleveland's Fresh Water Institute with Emily Bacha
• 16:00 Water Technology with Samantha Martin, Cleveland Water Alliance
• 25:11 Destination Development with Kierra Cotton, Port of Cleveland
• 30:07 Water Safety and Careers with Captain Drew Ferguson, Argonaut
• 38:48 Maritime Trade with Kate Wells, Interlake Steamship Company
• 45:30 Microplastics Filter Technology with Max Pennington, CLEANR

Transcript

Diane Bickett: 0:04

You're listening to EcoSpeak CLE, a podcast for the Eco Curious in Northeast Ohio. My name is Diane Vickett, and my producer is Greg Rotuno. Together we speak with local sustainability leaders and invite you to connect, learn, and live with our community and planet in mind.

Emily Bacha: 2:18

We're going to start off with some some u QA for you so that I can get a read of the room. For those who I haven't had a chance to meet, this is a really great room full of friends, and it's exciting to see so many folks here. But my name is Emily Vaca, and I am proud to serve as the director of the Freshwater Institute, a new Cuyahoga County program within the Office of Sustainability, really designed to help catalyze our region's culture of freshwater stewardship. Before I dive into my regards this evening, I'm interested to hear a little bit of feedback from you. How many people woke up this morning and brushed your teeth? How many, how many folks as you woke up, poured yourself a glass of water or made yourself a cup of coffee? How many folks are drinking beer made with Cleveland water and I'm gonna I need to be honest in this in this last question? How many of you have thought at any point during today? I am so grateful to live on a great lake in a region with abundant water resources. That's great. I um I'm glad to hear that there are so many people who are actively thinking about that because I think that in the world that we live in, it can we can take it for granted when we turn on the faucet that we have abundant freshwater resources in our backyard. Water is life, and here in Tiahoga County, water not only sustains the lives of ourselves, our friends, our family, our neighbors, but it also helps drive our economy. We sit on the shores of Lake Erie, one of five Great Lakes that make up the largest surface freshwater system in the world. This is likely not news to any of you. But of this whole water on Earth, only 3% is freshwater. And of that 3%, only 1% is accessible surface water, not trapped in glaciers or groundwater. 21% of that accessible fresh surface water is found in the Great Lakes in our backyard. I was chatting with someone recently who this was new news to them. Someone who would likely be in this crowd with us. And so I'm starting with in every presentation that we sit on 21% of the world's fresh surface water. I love this photo from NASA because it shows the vastness of our Great Lakes water system. Uh, known by many as inland seas. If you've talked with anyone recently who is not from around here, they go, wow, that's an awfully big lake. I got no idea. Tonight we're gathering on the southern shore of Lake Erie, the smallest Great Lake by volume and the shallowest. And what we lack in size, we make up for in other aspects. Lake Erie is the most populated of our Great Lakes, with one-third of the total population of the Great Lakes basin living in our watershed. Lake Erie provides drinking water for nearly 11 million people, including 3 million Ohioans. Cleveland Water, the, you know, when you turn on your tap water, they are in the 10th largest public water system in the United States, the largest in Ohio, and the largest system sourced in Lake Erie. The shallowness of the basin and the warmer temperatures make Lake Erie the most biologically productive of all of the Great Lakes. Lake Erie has more consumable fish than all of the other Great Lakes combined. Right? This is right for folks. So fishing on Lake Erie contributes in a major way to our region's tourism economy. And the eight the eight counties bordering Lake Erie have a total economic impact of $20 billion combined, accounting for more than a third of Ohio's tourism dollars. Just those eight lakeshore counties. And while that number seems big, if you look at the region as a whole, all of our Great Lakes, the eight states of two Canadian provinces that are in our Great Lakes watershed, post 51 million jobs and a six trillion dollar economy. It would be the third largest economy in the world if we just seceded our Great Lakes states and Canadian provinces. So the Great Lakes represent one of our most valuable assets. A national highway that has shaped our history. It continues to drive opportunity in Northeast Ohio. And many of you know that our location on the Cuyahoga River on the lake, as well as the development of that Ohio and Nearing Canal, right there, you Jim Bridge, grow to a major, helped us grow to a major economic powerhouse by the late 19th century. And for more than a century, the Cuyahoga River served as prime real estate for manufacturing. And when you think about water economy, that might be the economy that you're thinking of. Water pollution was viewed as a necessary consequence of a lot of that economic growth over the years, but no more. And we know that. After the river burnt for the last time, we had been on a journey of restoration for the Cuyahoga River of our lakefronts and thinking about water in new and different ways here in Northeast Ohio. If we go along that journey, I can look out into the crowd and see a number of different organizations that are helping build that water economy journey from the last river fire in 1969 to where we are today in 2025 and along the shores, along the shores of the lake and of the river. And if we think about that culture of freshwater stewardship, it really is ingrained in so many of the organizations and so many of the individuals in this room. And our county executive, Chris Ronain, when he was running for office, saw the potential of saying, what does it look like if we harness and we catalyze that region's our region's culture of freshwater stewardship? What happens next? And so the Freshwater Institute was born into an idea. The county did some focus groups and talked with a number of people to say, what would it look like to have an institute that's focused on education and research, water economy, advocacy and access, to really establish our region as a global freshwater leader because we know that we are and we can continue to grow into that leadership status that's recognized for our healthy and protective waterways, especially as we get closer to delisting of Kyahoga River as an area of concern, a thriving and sustainable water economy, which we're going to hear more and more about tonight, and a deeply engaged community. I'm looking at all of you that deeply values and understands the importance of our freshwater resources. So the Freshwater Institute kicked off, launched this time last year by Cuyahoga County. There's not a lot of other counties that have launched efforts like this, is what I'm finding. I joined the team in January of this year, and for the last 11 months, I've been connecting with so many different partners in this space. Again, focusing on these three key focus areas, making the connections between different partner organizations, different individuals at the local level, at the regional level, across the Great Lakes, across the nation. And when we talk about the water economy or the blue economy, folks often ask me, you know, I jump into conversations, this last slide of, you know, thinking about education and research, water economy, advocacy and access. Most folks get it. But when I say water economy, they go, What, excuse me? What are you talking about? And all of you are here to talk about that tonight, which I think is really exciting. And if we think about the definition of the water economy or the blue economy, you look at the World Bank and they're talking about the sustainable use of ocean resources for economic growth, a real focus on oceans. And I'll point to my friends at Cleveland Water Alliance as we move from the global to the regional to the local, knowing that our water economy is based on the foundational concept that water is a precious and limited resource. It's not just about our oceans, it's also about our freshwater systems and our great lakes here. And that any business that utilizes water or utility that treats water or organization that conserves water is part of that global and interconnected water economy. And that really rings true for me in the work that we're discussing today. So as I said, I tend to look at our water economy from the lens of Cleveland Water's perspective, Cleveland Water Alliance's perspective, to be all encompassing of those systems of economic activities, policies, institutions that influence the use, management, distribution, and value of our water resources. And when I think about that, I also think about the specifics. I need examples, tangible person that needs photos, news examples. And I think about the water utilities and infrastructure from drinking water, wastewater, stormwater, water-dependent industries here in Northeast Ohio, from advanced manufacturing to maritime shipping, food processing, yes, data centers, which we'll probably have a question about later. Thinking about water and technology, and how do we how do we pilot new and innovative technologies to help us do all of this work within the water economy? I think about recreation and tourism. Again, so much of our economy along those lakeshore counties is driven by our access to the lake. I also think about waterfront development and conservation. We're in a real moment here in Cleveland in a Cuyahoga County where we're going to see more and more access to the Cuyahoga River, more and more access to the lake. And I think that it'll help us pivot and talk about this a lot more because we will be able to see and touch and feel the waters that we've been disconnected from for so, so very long. Did you know that there are more than 300 water-related companies already here pursuing a broad range of technologies and solutions from plumbing, hardware to software, um, all related to all related to our water economy and getting our water from our Great Lake to our kitchen sinks. And as we think about this in the face of an increasingly water scarce world, businesses and people have no choice but to think about more, more resilient spaces to live, to work, to play, to grow their businesses. And I would venture to say that most of us here in this room understand that Northeast Ohio has that to offer. Meeting this moment will require new thinking about economic development that balances, and I think this is key if we think about the water economy of the past, the water economy today, thinking about balancing economic goals with fresh water protection. We can't take for granted that we live on 21% of the world's fresh surface water. That's a big advantage for us, but it also requires great stewardship and rate protection into the future. And so we can build, we can build this new economy as we go.

unknown: 12:49

Thank you.

Emily Bacha: 12:50

And that's part of the work that the Freshwater Institute is doing. Certainly connecting with partners, but also connecting with students and connecting with youth across Northeast Ohio and community across Northeast Ohio to begin to tell these stories in new and meaningful ways. And so if we go back to the major priorities of the Freshwater Institute, yes, we're talking about water economy, advocacy, and access, but we're also talking about education and research. And I don't know what fills my cup the most when I get to interact with the students that have been part of the Freshwater Institute's programming. This year we've been able to work with a couple of different nonprofit partners to launch a high school fellowship program. That's what you see in the top left, working with SIAT and teaching Cleveland to engage 20 students from 17 different schools across Cuyahoga County to learn about the ecology, the geology, the uh economy of our Great Lakes systems and helping them see what careers might be of interest to them. So they got to go behind the scenes at Cleveland Water at North East Ohio Regional Sewer Districts. They got to go up to Cali's Island and do hands-on science, they got to go to Niagara Falls and see a totally different uh version of what our Great Lake looks like and understand that there are rear caps and in fact at their graduation ceremony come celebration this summer as part of that program. That's what they said. I didn't know that there were other people out there that cared about water like Ivy. I didn't know that there were other people who uh are going into water-related careers. I had no idea that this future was ahead of me and that I could be a really vibrant part of that. Similarly, we launched an internship program by the Student Conservation Association and a couple of partners. And that's the photo that you see on the on the bottom left-hand side. And working with students that are graduating from high school and interested in going into water-related careers and helping them get the training and the skills that they need. So, water economy isn't just here's the dollars and cents, but here are the workforce development skills, the career-building skills that you can build alongside. So, Freshwater Institute is really proud to invest in those programs and to keep growing those programs as it relates to our water economy, certainly engaging our community along the way on that as well, from the smallest of those and our vents to uh to the oldest. I'm really excited for tonight's lightning round presentations. My goal was to give you a base knowledge of Great Lakes water economy. And in this space, I actually think my time I've been very surprised by. But when Diane approached to say, we'd like to talk about water economy, I said, I'm I'm having to be one part of this, but like Freshwater Institute, I'm just one part of this. There are so many good organizations doing such good work in this space, and I'm delighted that you'll get to hear from a number of them tonight to think about our water economy in a more robust way than maybe you did before grabbing that beer at the bar just a few minutes ago. So with that, I think that I get to pass it over to Samantha Martin.

Diane Bickett: 15:59

So first lightning round speaker is Samantha Martin. She has a title that is I know to read Director of Communications and Engagement for the Cleveland Water Alliance. Welcome, Samantha.

Samantha Martin: 16:21

Thanks, everyone. And this is this is really handy. This little there's a Victoria has a little thought going down right now. And I feel like everyone at a party who asks me what I do for work also wishes that they would have that because I could talk about this for a long time. Because like Emily said, it's not something that you think about. And when you think about it, there's a lot there. For example, I'm so glad to hear that so many people brush their teeth this morning. That's really reassuring. Um, how many people used like a Brita filter or some kind of water dispenser, maybe in your fridge or something like that? So you know when it's time to change the filter and there's like a little red light that goes off and it's like, okay, got to change our filter now. So that kind of just goes off vibes right now. So it's really just a timing thing. Like that doesn't depend on the amount of bacteria in your filter. Your filter might still be good. It might not. We actually are working with a South Korean company that has a sensor on a chip that could really revolutionize that space force. That is just one tiny little example of the work that we do. And that's what I want to do. Just give you a few little bite-sized pieces because I'm not from this world originally. I'm not a biologist or a scientist or a technology person. I'm just a girl who really liked Ranger Rick as a kid, and then that I'm held into Radio Lab. And I feel like a lot of people here are probably in the same boat as well. But Cleaf of Water Alliance, we are a relatively new organization when it comes to nonprofits. We just celebrated our 10-year anniversary last year, so we're in 11 years right now. And so for Cleveland nonprofits, that's that's relatively newer. And one of our founders, her name was Jenny Grassilli Brown. We actually lost her this year. She was a really, really incredible woman who was fierce and opinionated and spunky until the very end. But her, along with some really intelligent people, wanted to get on top of this opportunity. And the opportunity is that our history at Cleveland and Cuyahoga is no secret here. You know, where Great Lakes used to host Burning River Fest every year, which would get kind of crazy and fun. Um, if you've ever been, but Burning River Pale Ale, we know that our river caught on fire. We know that the photo and Time magazine wasn't actually the right fire at the right time, but that's neither here nor there. But they knew that that history created one of the highest concentrations of water expertise in the world, really, when you think about it. We have worked a really hard time. I know that there's a lot of folks on the AOC as well here, the area of concern, that are very familiar with getting the Cuyahoga River back up. We just released all those sturgeon in the river. That was a lot of fun. So to solve these issues requires incredible collaboration, collaboration from our institutions like Cuyahoga County, collaborations from corporations holding them accountable, collaborations from innovators and folks in the technology space as well. And so Cleveland Water really convenes, excuse me, Cleveland Water Lines convenes those folks along with utilities like Cleveland Water in the sewer district to advance water technology. And so we're advancing water technology for global benefit to solve global issues, global issues like microplastics. We have Max and the cleaner folks here, global issues like PIFAs and emerging contaminants and E. coli. But solving those issues here creates an economic impact in our region. So it really is a double whammy that we get to work on launching technology. Solves global issues while making an economic impact here. And why not here? I love your stats about Lake Erie and the Great Lakes. We get to travel abroad a lot, and we're really working and have positioned Cleveland as a global destination for water innovation. I get to share the stage with folks from the Netherlands, from Korea, from Singapore, and then there's Cleveland on the stage as well. And so when we talk about Lake Erie, they don't really understand how big it is. It's just smaller than Belgium, if you need a good reference point. So that's how big Lake Erie is. Giving me a microphone that detaches makes me just want to do crowd work. So sorry about that, you guys. I've been working on my type five for a while now. So some issues we've talked about PIFAs, mycoplastics, E. coli, oil, and chemical spills. These are all things I feel like if I were to pull everyone in the group right now, and I would say, how do we feel about just the safety and viability of our water resources? You know, looking ahead towards the future, no one be like, I feel totally great. I sleep well at night. I am not concerned at all about our water. I would say that that's not the case. So there is an entire economy around protecting and conserving and advancing our resources and making sure that they're here and safe for generations to come. So our water managers like the Seward District, like Cleveland Water, like watershed stewardship groups require this technology. So I'll give you a couple examples. Avon Lake Regional Water. They're a really unique utility. They have a board of citizens and can maybe move a lot more quickly than other utilities can. And we were approached by a different South Korean technology that wanted to enter the US market. So when a technology wants to enter a new market, it can be really difficult because they need to prove their technology in a real world environment. And you can't mess with people's water. So there's a lot of liability around that. There is a lot of costs around that. And there's just not a lot of opportunities to test and try out in a real world environment. So we approached Amon Lake asking if they were interested in this technology. And it was a fit, it was a match. And so this technology is the first time that it's been used in the US. And it is hypochloride. So high concentrate hypochlorides with chlorine. Your water has to be chlorinated per the EPA for you to drink it. And knowing that our water is recycled, that's really important. And so this technology gets chemicals off the backs of trains. We all know it happened in East Palestine. Chlorine can be a really, really volatile thing to deal with in plants. It can be dangerous for the environment if a train were to derail. But and it's incredibly expensive. It has gone up exponentially in recent years. So that technology is the first time it's being used in the US at AMLA, and it's being installed right now. And it's created by electrifying salt. Where do we have a lot of salt right under Lake Erie? So they also get to sell that to regional water systems as well, other utilities. It creates a huge economic impact for the entire region. Another, I mentioned testing and trialing technology in a real-world environment is a huge barrier to get to market. So we created the largest digitally connected freshwater body in the world. That's what we're on the shores of right now. So throughout Lake Erie, in the watershed, and even into the Ohio River Valley, we've outfitted over 7,700 square miles of the lake, of the tributaries with IoT technology, with sensors that relay real-time information. And what this is right here, these are tower fimers who, hey, are Marvel Water Economy because they're helping us. They're installing gateways for Laura WAN, which is kind of like Wi-Fi, but longer range, cheaper, and low power. And so that relays data from the buoys and sensors throughout the lake. So we collect over a million data points annually. That data point, oh my God, I'm running out of time, you guys. I told you I need one of these in real life. The those million data points annually relay data to our water managers. So we're in crazy times right now with the federal government. NOAA has been incredibly uncertain and it's it's tough times, but no matter what, we're collecting this data in our region. Our region has this data continue to continue to keep us safe. It's used by our water managers. And we're deploying technology throughout this system. Technology that can tell us about E. coli for our beach closures and that can track potentially new emerging contaminants. And I gotta wrap it up. So that's all you guys. I want to talk to you all afterwards. Talk to Max as well. Um this technology, but we're here to help technology come to fruition, make an economic impact in our region.

Diane Bickett: 25:07

Thank you, Samantha. Next up is Kiera Cotton, who's a marketing and communications manager for the Port of Cleveland.

Kierra Cotton: 25:20

So now that my slides are up, I'm here to talk about destination development and three major projects that the Port of Cleveland is involved in right now that are kind of steering that initiative forward. So when we talk about the blue economy, we're talking about more than the water itself. We're celebrating the work, innovation, and stewardship that have helped to reclaim the Cuyahoga River and Lake Erie, transforming them from symbols of environmental challenge into stories of resilience and renewal. And listen, friends, that did not happen by accident. It happened because us as a region, we decided that we were no longer gonna make the commitment to protect and strengthen our greatest natural resource, which is of course our fresh water. And the Port of Cleveland is proud to play a central role in that source. So, a little bit about the Port of Cleveland. We managed the imports and exports on the Cuyahoga River and Lake Erie, but how many of y'all knew that the Port of Cleveland also has cruise ships that come in every year? That means I'm doing my job, friends. Okay, incredible. So we had a record-breaking year this year. We had more than 50 calls with six different cruise lines. That equates to, by the numbers, 8,600 plus passengers, and roughly on estimate that each of those passengers spends $150 when they're here in Northeast Ohio, whether that's their local hotel, their diamond, entertainment. So just this year alone, we reached nearly $1.3 million in economic impact. Um, so the Great Lakes are becoming one of the world's most unique cruising regions, and Cleveland is increasingly recognized as a highlight of their journey. It's not just the rock and roll hall of flame. Cleveland has so much more to offer in terms of attraction to things for people to do. So, another major contribution to the blue economy is our Irish Town Bandit project. How many of you guys are familiar with that? Yes, we are super excited to be nearing completion on that project. But in 2023, just for a little background and those who may not know, 2023, the port took the lead at stabilizing the hillside, which was an essential step in maintaining maritime operations and protecting jobs and commerce along the river. But in this project, it's more than just infrastructure, it's about access and community. So once the hillside is stabilized, which I'm proud to announce will be in Q1 of 2026, it'll be an amazing public park, which will feature river views, trails, public gathering areas, and meaningful access to surrounding neighborhoods. Irish Town Bent represents what the blue economy is all about, making our waterfront safer, more accessible, and more connected for everyone. And again, and again, we will officially hand things over to the Cleveland Metro Parks in February of 2026. And then last but certainly not least, I want to tell you guys about our Cheers project, which stands for Cleveland Harvard Eastern Emma Resilience Strategy. How many of you guys know what dredging is? Oh my gosh. So many smart people in the room. I love to hear that. So dredging is a process that happens biannually on the Cuyahoga River and into Lake Erie in order to keep our shipping channels open. So that dredge material has to go somewhere. So what the Cheers Project does is provides a 20-year plan for that dredge material so that we can have those amazing parks and resources that we can, you know, kayak and do all the fun things that other cities have that we haven't yet figured out. But we have a plan in place and it's gonna work. So the vision for Cheers focuses on creating a healthier, more resilient shoreline, one that supports habitat, recreation, and long-term ecological stability. Cheers has been identified as the locally preferred solution for that beneficial reuse of dredged material, and the U.S. Army Corps and engineers is currently evaluating it as part of their 20-year dredged material management plan. So, beyond these flagship projects, the port is deeply committed to building a sustainable maritime system. We handle large volumes of steel, brake bolt guns, containerized cargo, and while meeting some of the most rigorous environmental standards on the Great Lakes, we are the premier board on the Great Lakes. We are currently advancing initiatives to modernize equipment, explore electrification opportunities, and reduce emissions across our operations. Sustainability isn't just a goal for us, it's an operational priority. So every investment in our waterfront creates a ribble effect, driving innovation, recreation, tourism, and neighborhood revitalization. So again, the Port of State Lunation is just super proud to be a part of all of the amazing advancements that are happening along our waterfront. And I look forward to connecting with all of you tonight and hope you learned something.

Diane Bickett: 30:06

Okay. Next up is Captain Drew Ferguson, who's the CEO and the founder of Argonon.

Captain Drew ferguson: 30:20

Which will explain why I do what I do. Tonight I was asked to talk a little bit about safety and recreation on the Great Lakes. But I'm going to start by telling you that is not our primary mission. It is just something that we do really well. As a CEO and founder of Argonaut, I created an organization to connect kids from Cleveland and Northeast Ohio to amazing and fun opportunities in maritime and aerospace. In 2011, we put a team of folks together, went from East Coast to West Coast down to the Gulf and looked at different schools and how folks educate and connect their youth to the aerospace and maritime industries. In 2017, we actually presented the concept of an aerospace and maritime high school to the Cleveland Metropolitan School District. Took a little longer than I'd expected. However, in 2017, we were able to open a public-private partnership between Cleveland Metropolitan School District and Argonaut to open a grade 9 through 12 high school focusing on aerospace and maritime. The opportunities that we present to the kids are largely career-based, but in order to get the kids excited about it, we took an immersive approach. So freshmen and software years are spent fully immersing our kids literally in the water for maritime and then putting them in the sky. Every kid flies an airplane, every kid operates a boat, every kid swims in a pool, then swims in Lake Erie. So they get exposure, they understand what it is. We develop passion, we excite them, get them into that idea that life is an advent, an adventure. From there, we start to educate them and train them on the history of the Great Lakes, the history of the aerospace and maritime industry, how important Cleveland is to aviation as well as the maritime sector and manufacturing. We train, get certificates, and then the last year of school, we open our kids up to the community and let them choose what specific career path they want and what goal they have to use the skills and passion they've developed to make Cleveland, Northeast Ohio, and Lake Erie a better place.

Speaker 3: 32:47

Yeah.

Captain Drew ferguson: 32:49

This takes place on multiple fronts. I'm gonna focus on maritime because this doesn't look like much of an aviation group. And it is kind of why I was invited as supposed to talk about it. So we're gonna talk about safety and recreation. The two do go hand in hand. You hear the word access used all the time around this area. Oh, well, we gotta build access, we gotta build access. And people think docks, boat rooms, more beaches. But access is removing a lot more hurdles than that. There's a huge fear of water amongst a lot of people in the One East Ohio. Schools offer physical education, all sorts of training, but being along a shoreline of the one of the largest freshwater sources in the world, you know, we don't train kids to swim. That's not a part of common uh education. So we have to remove that barrier. Our Argonaut advocates all of our kids swim, but we advocate working with other organizations, working with the freshwater institute, working with folks like the Foundry, Cleveland Rowing Foundation, Aquamissions to make sure that every kid gets access to the water, first starting with removing fear, then teaching them how to swim, getting them on the water, showing them that it is a great source for recreation, and then exploring the job opportunities that are there. So another fact that you didn't mention that was black to you, totally swollen. I thought I worked on this for like 45 minutes today. The Great Lakes have 1100 US, 1,100 miles of U.S. shoreline, more than the rest of the country has shoreline, adding together our Atlantic shoreline, our Gulf Shoreline, and the Pacific. But despite this, we have the fewest, the least amount of resources committed to making it usable, to make it a part of our community. You go down, you go to Jersey Shore. There's the whole Jersey Shore thing. The community's built around their life on the water and connecting to the water. All through Florida, all the shoreline. We go down there, we vacation. Public safety is set up around making it safe for people to swim and engage the water. In the Great Lakes, that doesn't happen. And that has always been a shock to me. I work with an organization called the United States Life Saving Association. These are professional lifeguards. This Israel. Honolulu, all the way at the shoreline, West Coast, from Maine all the way down to the Keys. You have professional lifeguards on all coasts of the United States. There's not one lifeguard agency in the Great Lakes. And so what we're doing is we're finding the kids who want to take that passion and follow a subgroup of our maritime kids that really want to focus on safety and providing access for others, for their family, and their friends. This is taking the shape in a marine safety vessel. Through a program at the Port of Cleveland, we launched a vessel that provides safety escorts for the large ships that go up and down the Cuyahoga River. These boats are staffed by students who serve as deck group, who serve as water rescuers. They are earning their sea time. They're getting paid more than McDonald's every day, every hour they're out there. And they're making the Cuyahoga River safer for recreational boaters. They're out there, they're loving it, they're having fun. We wouldn't have loved to be a kid growing up on a boat on the Cuyahoga River in the flats of high school and making men. But these are our students who said, I have a calling for the water. I know I want to be on the water. I don't know if it's gonna be working at Interlake, I don't know if I want to go to the Coast Guard in the Navy, but this is a way for me to explore. And while I'm exploring, I'm making the Cuyahoga River safety. Then we have kids that are engaged to identify public access points. How can we make the water safety? Life rings. If you go up and down the Cuyahoga River, you're starting to see them pop up here and there again. If you go to Voinovich Park, you will see every 200 feet there's a life ring and a 90-foot throw rope with a sign on how to use it. That was developed, constructed, installed, and is maintained by students from Davis Aerospace and Maritime High School. Again, this is about them not only making it comfortable for themselves, but making it sacred for the community. Our other programs in the maritime world, we operate Lotsman's Edson on behalf of the Cleveland Fort Authority. So when you look out there, you see the two debris harvesting vessels, the guys cleaning the garbage out of the river. That is staffed by two Argonaut captains, two lead deck hands or the crew bosses who are Davis AM graduates, and then two to three additional kids who are all students at Davis AM. We also operate the utility vessel, the launch vessel for the research and the buoys. So Clean Water Lights has the buoys that they're out there. Our students are actually the ones who launch them each year. We bring them in, we clean them, we store them for the winter, and relaunch them. So our way of building access, getting kids to fall in love with the water, find careers, get recreation is about immersing, preparing, connecting, and then having them engaged in the growth of our community on the Great Lakes. My ask of all of you is to get engaged. There are a ton of swim programs. We need volunteers. You can contact Emily and say, hey, you know what? I can stand in deep water. I know how to swim. We need to teach every kid in this city how to swim. We need to teach every kid in Cuyahoga County how to swim. You can also become a lifeguard. I'm always lifeguards. The reason so many pools, and the first step of going to the Great Lakes is getting comfortable in a small pool. There are a ton of pools in this area. There are not a lot of lifeguards. Anyone, any age, can become a lifeguard. So I ask if you find a way, something that you can do to help promote water from the first introduction all the way to getting out on the Great Lakes, paddling, and doing all that. So please be involved. Thank you.

Diane Bickett: 38:44

Drew Ferguson. Okay, last but not least, we have Kate Wells, who is the manager of environmental stewardship and quality for Interlake Steamship Company.

Kate Wells: 38:58

Good evening, everybody. Again, Kate Wells with Interlake Maritime Services, our subsidiaries, Interlake Steamship Company, as well as a couple other lines of business for ferries and some other smaller businesses. I'm here tonight to talk about kind of our organization's role of the Blue Economy. Historically, I've done talks in the frame of environmental as I manage our programs, science, regulatory, forum thinking. So tonight I'm focusing more kind of on what our business does, what Interlake does, how we how we exist here in Cleveland. I'm a native Clevelander. I grew up here. I never knew about this industry. When I started with Interlake, after kind of on my journey of being a geologist and then working in landside in a landscape compliance job, you know, I took the job of Interlake and realized that these boats are here all the time and removing a ton of cargo and keeping kind of the things going. It just when I realized the scale of it, it was very surprising to me. And I realized when I talked to people who are also native. Clevelanders that they have a similar experience or a similar feel that they didn't have that awareness either. Inner Lake is the largest primarily held fleet on the Great Lakes, and we have been delivering new material. We have been delivering raw materials across the Great Lakes since 1883. Our fleet includes 10 bulk carriers. Those are the large bulk carrying freighter ships you see in Lake Erie. They range in size from 639 feet to 1,013 feet. 1,000 feet or 1,000 foot vessels are called footers. And they're pretty immense when you see it. It's like several football fields. We also have one tug deck barge vessel, which is much smaller, and five ferries that crisscross the lakes more than 700 times in a season. Our season is abbreviated. We only run from March to January in any given season, so it's not calendar based. It's really based on opening and closure of the locks up in the Sioux. We have around 400 mariners working in our fleets, and we move more than 20 million tons of raw materials annually. We like to call them the building blocks of America because they truly are. As a reference, because it's hard to imagine that scale. Again, I came into this position really realizing how large these vessels are, how much work they do. And so I always like a scale reference. Because when you say 20 million, that's a lot, you know, that that's a lot of tons moved. But for reference, an elephant is approximately five tons. So that's about four million elephants annually. So I know it's a weird picture, but I did this. I did a similar talk for fifth graders one time. And I was like, what's gonna hit? What's gonna resonate? What are they gonna understand? And it helps me. That's a lot of elephants. Um so safe, sustainable shipping is important to us. We're participants of Green Marine, it's a voluntary environmental certification program. We work hard to meet and exceed regulations, and our goal is to continuously improve our environmental profile because we not only work in and around the Great Lakes, we raise our families here. A lot of our mariners are from this area. I manage our Green Marine program. It is pretty extensive, and it's a privilege to be able to have kind of a guidepost for how to continually improve. Fun fact a thousand-foot vessel has the carrying capacity equivalent to 700 train cars and 2800 trucks. So when you consider the scale, again, I know I keep saying scale, but I think it's an important reference point. It's important to understand that we're talking very big things, moving lots of rocks and dirt, really, in one movement instead of a number of different rail cars or trucks on the road. So the impact is rake in our region. You know, if they asked to kind of look at some of the surprising examples of our work or some kind of uh interesting things, and you know, the Cuyahoga River is a great lake area of concern. You've heard it alluded to. I sit on our Cuyahoga AOC committee and I chair our governance committee. So we are involved, even as industry, in seeing a good river get delisted. Everybody wants that, and it is within grasp. It's a crucial waterway, vital not only to commerce and industry, but to our entire region. Our three river class vessels, the Herbert C. Jackson, the Dorothy Ann Gasfinder, and the Bart W Barker, keep busy on the Cuyahoga. So they've delivered 2.4 million tons of essential cargo annually to support regional industry. For comparison, one vessel load would require more than 600 trucks to match that carrying capacity. The products include stone and sand for construction, iron ore for steelmaking, and salt for winter roads. These shipments power the economy and connect Cleveland to the Great Lake supply chain. Delivering these essential cargoes is a privilege. And so then also is asked to discuss what our asset is. How can people get involved? Now, obviously, we are a business, so join us and work with us. We always need people, always looking for a crew. But I guess I would ask to promote the idea of safety on our shared waterways. Drew alluded to this with the work that they're doing. You know, we understand and value the importance of sharing the river with recreational sailors and voters, and want to do so in the safest way possible. Many of our mariners and shoreside staff spend their free time on the river. They're using it. Like I said, a lot of our folks are from this area. Through organized groups like the Cuyahoga River Safety Task Force, Share the River in Argonaut, escorting commercial media vessels, rather, there's increased awareness and collaboration. Using the marine traffic app and understanding the limitations of a 700-foot freighter with about 25 feet of free board goes a long way. I know they're cool and it's cool to come alongside, but it's not safe. So we really appreciate all of Argonaut's work with the FastR 2543. It's been great to be able to be escorted and to do what we're doing, but also have that access available to everyone else and not peak that traffic. So that's all I have for tonight. Thank you.

Diane Bickett: 45:24

Thank you to all of our speakers. Before we start the QA, we have a couple of announcements. I would like to invite Max Pennington to come up to talk about his invention, which is a water filter that will reduce microplastics from entering the lake from your washing machine.

Speaker 3: 45:43

Yeah.

Max Pennington: 45:48

Thank you very much. Great to see all this folks. Okay. Great to see all of you. I know a lot of the faces in the crowd, and thanks for letting me speak. I'm one of the co-founders and CEO of Cleaner. We make microplastic filters for washing machines. Most people don't realize, but laundry is actually the largest source of microplastic pollution out in the environment. So we're built in Cleveland. We're based out of Thinkbox. We've launched an external filter for washing machines that catches over 90% of microplastics down to 50 micron. Case actually just bought and installed 100 filters on Canvas, which is super exciting. It's the first university that I'm aware of that has microplastic filters across the entire canvas. And really, there's a lot of legislation coming to actually require microplastic filters on washing machines. We got the patent for the technology, which is inspired by FISH over the summer. We had a launch event at the Great Lakes Science Center. And really, our vision as a company is to remove microplastics not only leaving your home, but also coming into your home. So we're starting to apply the vortex to whole home water filtration. And yeah, making a lot of progress. We're trying to work with the washing machine manufacturers to actually integrate it into the washing machine. We're starting to talk to hospitals in the local area to build bigger systems to actually catch microplastics, coming out of industrial laundry. And that's all we can really take on right now because we're a seven person team. But if any of you are looking for ways to support, honestly, buying a filter is a huge lever for us because we take all of that data and we show it to the washing machine manufacturers and say, look, there really is considerable demand for this. And you can put it in your washing machine, you can make money today. So that would be my ass if you want to buy a filter, install a filter, and leave us a reveal. Our website's www.cleaner.life. It's cleaner without the e. C-L-E-L-R. Thank you.

Greg Rotuno: 47:47

We hope you've enjoyed this episode of EcoSpeak CLE. You can find our full catalog of episodes on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. New episodes are available the first and third Tuesday of each month. Please follow EcoSpeak CLE on Facebook and Instagram and become part of the conversation. If you would like to send us feedback and suggestions, or if you'd like to become a sponsor of EcoSpeak CLE, you can email us at hello at ecospexcle.com. Stay tuned for more important and inspiring stories to come.