Timeline
- 1st Iron Furnace (1860)
- 1st Sanitary Sewer (1892); it pumps sewage directly to the Black River, resulting in an increase of typhoid cases
- Johnstown Steel relocates to Lorain (1894-1895)
- Johnstown Steel becomes Lorain Steel (1898)
- 1st Blast Furnaces, Lorain Steel (1899)
- Lorain Steel becomes part of US Steel (1901)
- First pipe made at National Tube Company (1905)
- Limited environmental regulation of discharges
- Ohio Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) formed
- Clean Water Act passes and leads to regulation of discharges
- Steel mill faces air pollution enforcement action
- Brown bullhead catfish liver studies conducted
- Ohio EPA conducts intensive survey of the Black River
- Ohio Department of Health issues contact advisory for the lower Black River
- Ohio Department of Health issues a Do No Eat Fish advisory for the lower Black River; later revisions of advisory follow
- Steel mill coking plant closes
- Brown bullhead catfish liver studies conducted
- Black River is identified as a Great Lake Area of Concern by the International Joint Commission
- Remedial dredging of contaminated sediments begins
- Black River Remedial Action Plan (RAP) formed
- Ohio EPA conducts intensive survey of the Black River
- Brown bullhead catfish liver studies conducted
- Ohio EPA conducts intensive survey of the Black River
- Brown bullhead catfish liver studies conducted
- Ohio Department of Health lifts contact advisory for the lower Black River
- The Black River RAP applies for and receives a re-designation of the Fish Tumors and Other Deformities Beneficial Use Impairment from "Impaired" to “In Recovery"
- Black River delists benthos impairment in the East Branch; it is the first RAP area in the U.S. to completely remove any impairment
- Lower Black River Ecological Restoration Master Plan completed in December 2009
- Black River Remedial Action Plan Stage 2 Report completed in November 2011
- Fish sampling and fish tissues studies conducted by the Ohio EPA
- City of Lorain secured numerous grants for ecological restoration activities within the Black River AOC
- Invasive species removal along the lower six miles of the river as a result of a U.S. EPA Challenge Grant
- Ohio EPA releases updated delisting guidance for Ohio AOCs
- The name is changed from the Black River RAP to the Black River AOC Advisory Committee
- Black River AOC Advisory Committee votes to begin the process to delist BUIs for fish and wildlife consumption and eutrophication and undesirable algae
- U.S EPA's Great Lakes National Program Office gives approval to re-designate the AOC to exclude the East and West Branches of the Black River. Based on environmental data, the branches do not significantly differ from other agricultural non-AOC watersheds around the Great Lakes.
- Local, state and federal partners have worked together in completing all management actions, with the final step finished in September 2020. ;
- The U.S. EPA announced the 100th Beneficial Use Impairment from a U.S. Area of Concern, a historic milestone in restoring the Great Lakes. This accomplishment occured at the Black River AOC, where the EPA removed the Degradation of Aesthetics beneficial use impairment.
