The Department of Environmental Protection announced this week it will accept applications for watershed restoration and protection grants for the seventh year of Growing Greener.

The deadline to apply is March 4. Visit the Growing Greener Grant Center online for more information.

Since 1999, Growing Greener has supplied $156 million in grants for more than 1,400 projects in all 67 counties of Pennsylvania. The grants are used to create or restore wetlands, restore stream buffer zones, eliminate causes of nonpoint source pollution, plug oil and gas wells, reclaim abandoned mine lands, and restore aquatic life to streams that were lifeless due to acid mine drainage.

For the upcoming grant round, DEP will invest in projects that seek to address nonpoint source pollution, such as abandoned mine drainage, urban and agricultural runoff, atmospheric deposition, on-lot sewage systems and earth-moving activities.

Eligible projects could include reducing nonpoint source pollution in watersheds where streams are impaired; designing practices and activities that support water quality trading initiatives; integrating stormwater management and flood protection into watershed management; encouraging the beneficial use of abandoned mine pool water; and integrating air deposition controls and management with mitigating water quality problems.

So far this year, DEP has announced a total of $24.3 million in Growing Greener grants: $5.5 million watershed grants; $3.9 million to support watershed specialists in county conservation districts and $5 million for the Crop Reserve Enhancement Program. About $4.4 million (10 percent minimum) is reserved to fund innovative sewer and water projects, but DEP has not yet announced these projects.

About $15.8 million remains to be allocated from Growing Greener funding by DEP for its own mine reclamation and well plugging projects and for the Administration’s plan to accelerate the payback of previous Growing Greener grants. A portion of the Energy Harvest Program grants also came from this year’s Growing Greener allocation.

For FY 2004-05, DEP earmarked the $34.6 million in Growing Greener funding this way: $21.232 million for Watershed Protection and Remediation; $2.1 million for Oil and Gas Well Plugging; $ 6.9 million Abandoned Mine Reclamation and Remediation; and $4.465 million for Sewage and Drinking Water Grants.

Funding for the original Growing Greener Program continues from the $4 per ton fee on municipal waste through 2012.

DEP received nearly 450 applications for watershed restoration and protection projects in 2004.

12/24/2004