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Water Resources Education Network Announces Project Grant Awards
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The Water Resources Education Network Project, a program of the League of Women Voters of Pennsylvania Citizen Education Fund, has awarded $71,723 in funding to 15 community partnerships across the state on non-point source and source water protection projects.
Non-Point Source Projects
Eleven non-point source projects totaling $47,723 were awarded for activities focusing on improving watersheds by reducing nonpoint source water pollution. Funding for NPS education projects is made available by the Department of Environmental Protection’s Nonpoint Source Management Program through Section 319 of the Federal Clean Water Act, administered by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
The projects funded are:
-- Bellwood-Antis School District, $5,000: Bellwood-Antis students will become Environmental Ambassadors of the district’s Outdoor Classroom that will feature stormwater best management practice demonstration areas including streamside buffers, rain gardens, rain barrels, pollinator gardens, and cover crops for gardens.
-- Cambria County Conservation District, $4,250: This project will expand the district’s Marcellus Shale Education Series program with programs for municipal officials involved in Marcellus shale development issues, engaging over 15 primary water suppliers in source water monitoring programs.
-- Chester Ridley Crum Watersheds Association, $5,000: Partners will work with four communities to modify stormwater basins using native plantings to improve water infiltration and reduce sediment pollution.
-- Crawford County Conservation District, $5,000: This stormwater education project creates a Rain Barrel rebate program of $30 for up to 100 eligible participants who attend one of the four district hosted Rain Barrel workshops.
-- Dauphin County Conservation District, $2,970: This project will improve water quality by reducing stream bank erosion and improving stormwater management.
-- Lawrence County Conservation District, $4,200: The partners will conduct two stormwater management workshops and conduct walking tours for municipal officials and engineers that highlight examples of stormwater best management practices.
-- Queen Village Neighbors Association, $4,828: The partners will implement EPA’s guidance for Pet Waste Collection (National Memo of Best Management Practices for Stormwater) and enhance the City of Philadelphia’s Green City-Clean Water vision by designing, fabricating, and installing disposal stations with biodegradable bags at dog run areas in numerous pocket parks.
-- Schuylkill Headwaters Association, $5,000: The “Art of Rain” project will help educate Schuylkill County residents and businesses about stormwater runoff impacts through a rain barrel art contest and a how-to rain barrel workshop.
-- Shade Creek Watershed Association, $1,475: The partners will build an interpretive trail equipped with five kiosks housing informative signs and pamphlets designed to educate visitors about stream ecosystems, wetlands, and acid mine remediation activities.
-- Partnership for the Delaware Estuary, $5,000: This project will adapt the Philadelphia Water Department’s existing Green Guide for Property Management for use throughout the Delaware Valley Watershed.
-- Green Treks Network, Inc., $5,000: This project will create a video about students learning, implementing, maintaining, and transferring their knowledge to local residents about a variety of stormwater best management practices in an “ultra-urban” environmental outreach center in a combined sewer overflow neighborhood in West Philadelphia.
Source Water Protection
Four SWP projects totaling $24,000 were awarded for activities focusing on Source Water Protection. Funding for SWP education projects is provided by the Department of Environmental Protection Source Water Protection Program through Section 1452 of the Safe Drinking Water Act of 1996, administered by U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
The projects funded are:
-- River Alert Information Network (RAIN), $5,000: Project partners will form a Source Water Environmental Education Team (SWEET) to conduct community source water protection public education workshops for municipal officials, residents and children.
-- Potter County Conservation District, $8,000: Potter County is forming a county-wide coalition with participation of all nine Public Water Suppliers that will educate citizens and school children about ways to protect drinking water source areas from pollution and address the increasing level of gas well drilling in the county.
-- Susquehanna Greenway Partnership/ SEDA COG Community Resource Center, $5,000: Project partners will form a Source Water Environmental Education Team (SWEET) to conduct community source water protection public education workshops, develop a Source Water Protection Fact Sheet and promote redevelopment activities to reduce pollution risks where junkyards and railroad transportation corridors are located in close proximity to the public water supply source.
-- Tioga County Conservation District, $6,000: Project partners will form a county-wide Source Water Environmental Education Team (SWEET) to conduct source water protection public education workshops.
A more complete description of each project, project partners and contacts is available online.
Projects will carry out community water resource education projects between July 1, 2011 and June 30, 2012.
The WREN Program focuses on two initiatives: Watershed Education to prevent Nonpoint Source pollution, and Source Water Protection Promotion to help protect public drinking water sources.
Learn more about how to be funded or view the listings by county to see projects from previous years as well. For more information, contact Julie Kollar, WREN Program Director, 267-468-0555 or send email to: juliekwren@verizon.net.
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5/23/2011 |
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