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Growing Greener Anniversary- Montour Run, Aultman Watershed Associations Win $250 Growing Greener Grants
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The final two Growing Greener 10th Anniversary grants have been awarded to the Montour Run Watershed Association in Allegheny County and the Aultman Watershed Association for Restoring the Environment in Indiana County.
Stan Sattinger, Vice-President of the Montour Run Watershed Association, submitted an article describing how the Association just completed its fifth mine drainage treatment project. Click here to read the story.
Brian Okey, President of the Aultman Watershed Association for Restoring the Environment in Indiana County, submitted a story on how the Growing Greener Watershed Program enabled volunteers and partners in the watershed to take extraordinary steps to restore water quality. Click here to read the story.
Visit the Growing Greener Anniversary website to read more success stories.
History And Future
The award-winning Growing Greener Program was signed into law on December 15, 1999. Gov. Tom Ridge and the General Assembly created the original five year, nearly $645 million Growing Greener Program which continues to be the largest single investment ever enacted to clean up and restore the environment.
Thanks to the Foundation for Pennsylvania Watersheds, an anonymous benefactor and other partners, a special grant program was developed to give two $250 grants to watershed groups every month through February for the best article, photo or video submitted to a special Growing Greener website.
The groups partnering to sponsor the celebration included: the Foundation for Pennsylvania Watersheds, Stream Restoration, Inc., the Western Coalition for Abandoned Mine Reclamation, the Pennsylvania Environmental Council, the Eastern Coalition for Abandoned Mine Reclamation, the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, Western Pennsylvania Conservancy, the PA Association of Conservation Districts, LandStudies, Inc. and PA Environment Digest.
Serious watershed restoration efforts continue in Pennsylvania, in spite of the decreased support form the Department of Environmental Protection and the Growing Greener Program over the last seven years.
During 2009 alone over 1,500 people attended watershed conferences or other environmental events dedicated to watershed restoration and protection, a core mission of Pennsylvania's environmental efforts.
This is the largest number of people dedicated to any environmental program in the Commonwealth. Bankrupt Growing Greener
For the first time, Gov. Rendell proposed a budget where more than half of the income in the Environmental Stewardship Fund (Growing Greener) will go for debt service-- $36.8 million-- with only $33.2 remaining for projects. In addition, the proceeds from the Growing Greener II bond will be exhausted this year to support projects.
Debt service payments will increase to $60 million of the $66 million in new revenues coming into the Fund annually leaving little funding for mine reclamation, watershed restoration, oil and gas well plugging, agricultural best management practices, recreation projects and farmland preservation.
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2/12/2010 |
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