The Department of Environmental Protection Friday announced the award of nearly $550,000 to support 15 projects by municipalities, schools, and community organizations that help protect and restore water quality, shoreline stability, trails, and other community and natural resources in the coastal areas along Lake Erie and the tidal Delaware River in Pennsylvania.

“Our coastal areas are complex ecosystems that provide a bounty of natural and community resources,” said DEP Secretary Patrick McDonnell. “Local initiatives to protect their environmental sustainability will also protect public health, infrastructure, business, and outdoor recreation opportunities. This is essential as coastal zones come under increasing pressure from development, erosion, severe storms, biodiversity loss, and pollution.”

This year’s grants support a variety of initiatives, including debris cleanup, public educational programs, creek restoration and trail construction projects, a living shoreline to stabilize erosion, research on algal bloom impacts, and development of local municipal capacity to adapt to flooding related to climate change.

The projects funded include--

Tidal Delaware River Coastal Area 

-- Bensalem Township – $50,000 to construct a segment of the Bensalem Greenway Trail through Ryn County Park as part of the East Coast Greenway initiative from Maine to Florida

-- Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission – $50,000 to conduct outreach to municipalities in the Delaware Estuary Coastal Zone focused on climate resiliency and related hazard mitigation; $45,000 to implement the Coastal Management Program in the Delaware Estuary Coastal Zone

-- Friends of Silver Lake Nature Center – $9,440 to provide water quality monitoring and community educational programming on non-point-source pollution

-- Heritage Conservancy – $24,000 to provide community educational programming, help restore biodiversity and habitat through invasive species control, and develop school and scout volunteer stewardship opportunities at Croydon Woods Preserve

-- Keep Pennsylvania Beautiful – $10,000 to conduct community cleanups and debris removal in the Delaware Estuary

-- Partnership for the Delaware Estuary, Inc. – $52,722 to conduct a study on integrating freshwater mussel restoration and living shorelines on the Schuylkill River; $34,503 to conduct Pennsylvania Coast Day 2019 events to educate the public about coastal recreation, historic sites, and public access

-- Schuylkill River Development Corporation – $50,000 to complete the final design for a new segment of Schuylkill Banks, part of the Schuylkill River Trail, from Christian to Crescent; $42,000 to complete the Bartram’s Mile fishing pier feasibility study

Lake Erie Coastal Area

-- County of Erie – $70,000for coordination and technical assistance with Lake Erie coastal zone projects; $9,000 to assist Lake Erie coastal communities in administering the Bluff Recession and Setback Act of 1980

-- Erie Times-News in Education – $41,572 for a recurring Newspaper in Education weekly page focusing on coastal zone environmental issues

-- Gannon University – $11,915 to conduct the Regional Summer School of Excellence

-- Regional Science Consortium – $49,834 to research the impact of Harmful Algal Blooms on wild and domestic animal populations

Coastal areas comprise coastal waters and adjacent shorelands. The 112-mile Delaware Estuary coastal area is in Bucks, Delaware, and Philadelphia counties. It encompasses islands, marshes, and other areas in the Delaware Estuary watershed, as well as the Port of Philadelphia.

The 77-mile Lake Erie coastal area is in Erie County and includes the Lake Erie shoreline and several major tributaries. It also extends to the middle of the lake, to the international boundary with Canada, and inland an average of 1.4 miles.

For more information on this program, visit DEP’s Coastal Zone Resources webpage.

[Posted: Oct. 19, 2018]

10/22/2018