Email You are free to share this article under the Attribution 4.0 International license. Federal grants aimed at water pollution remediation in Great Lakes Areas of Concern, or AOCs, had a notable and statistically significant effect on housing prices within about a 12-mile radius of specific regions on all five lakes. “Despite concerns about various sources and types of pollution impacting water quality in the US, and a substantial amount of federal funding allocated towards mitigating the pollution, there is relatively little research on the economic benefits of efforts to clean up water pollution.