MARQUETTE — Marquette Township and the Yellow Dog Watershed Reserve have been awarded grants to restore and protect water quality from the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy.

Each grant will reduce sediment, nutrients and other contaminants to help restore impaired water bodies and protect high-quality water bodies.

Marquette Township was awarded $293,356 to reduce nonpoint source pollutants, improve stream conditions and restore hydrology by replacing four dramatically undersized culverts with appropriately sized bottomless arch culverts in an urban cold-water stream.

Yellow Dog Watershed Preserve Inc., was awarded $94,866 to repair a failed road stream crossing on Deer Creek, a cold-water tributary of the Yellow Dog River in Marquette County. The project will restore the hydrology and sediment flow of Deer Creek and maintain the cold-water recharge of the Yellow Dog River.

The grants are funded under the federal Clean Water Act — Section 319 and the Clean Michigan Initiative — Nonpoint Source Pollution Control Grants Program.

Grants are offered via an annual request for proposals with the next opportunity to apply in mid-July at Michigan.gov/NPS.

EGLE’s Nonpoint Source Program helps local stakeholders reduce pollution and excess runoff by supporting efforts to develop and launch watershed management plans.