On May 9, Pennsylvania American Water announced 8 watershed-related projects in its service territory will receive a total of $40,000 in financial support through the company’s 2019 Environmental Grant Program for their community-based projects that improve, restore or protect watersheds.

The announcement coincides with Drinking Water Week – a celebration by the American Water Works Association and the water community across North America that recognizes the vital role drinking water plays in daily lives.

This year’s Drinking Water Week theme is “Protect the Source” and focuses on ways water consumers can take personal responsibility in caring for their tap water and protecting it at its source.

“As we celebrate Drinking Water Week, this grant program announcement is a great opportunity to recognize and support the organizations that work every day in our communities to protect our environment and preserve our sources of drinking water,” said Jeffrey McIntyre, president of Pennsylvania American Water. “We are proud to partner with this year’s grant recipients for their commendable work on clean water education and environmental stewardship at the most local level.”

The 2019 Environmental Grant Program recipients are:

-- Allegheny Land Trust (Allegheny County) – Engaging Girls in Watershed Exploration with STREAM Girls ($8,000): This program uses female role models and experience-based learning to increase girls’ interest in science, technology, recreation, engineering, art and math. The grant will help expand the STREAM Girls program into Washington County for the first time in partnership with the Penns Woods West and Chestnut Ridge Chapters of Trout Unlimited and the Foundation of Pennsylvania Watersheds.

-- Ellwood City Borough (Lawrence County) – Five Point Community Garden ($8,000): The project funded by this grant will rehabilitate Five Point Park into multiple community gardens, which will be used for stormwater management, recreation and food production. The improvements will add a walking path with benches and educational signage, and the new area will serve as a host site for educational workshops on home stormwater management and gardening.

-- Greater Carbondale YMCA (Lackawanna County) – Racket Brook Riparian Restoration ($6,000): With the funds provided for this project, volunteers will remove invasive knotweed and replant the riparian zone along Racket Brook with native shrubs and trees. The riparian restoration will provide vegetative cover on the banks and over the creek to improve conditions for aquatic life, improve aesthetics, stabilize the bank, and create access to the creek for environmental education.

-- Indiana Borough – Indiana County Stormwater Education Rain Barrel Workshop ($800)

This grant will allow the Borough to host a workshop to educate the community on stormwater management, give out rain barrels, and provide information on how rain barrels can help achieve long-term sustainability by helping to alleviate stormwater overflows and prevent pollution in Marsh Run and Stoney Run, which flow into Two Lick Creek at the headwaters of the Allegheny.

-- Londonderry Township (Dauphin County)– Community Buffer Planting and Rain Barrel Workshop ($4,000): With this funding, the Township will plant approximately 180 trees and shrubs in a riparian buffer area along Swatara Creek Road, which is part of an ongoing restoration site. The Township will also host a community workshop to educate residents on home stormwater management and provide methods for reducing runoff and recycling stormwater through residential rain barrel collection systems.

-- Lower Chartiers Watershed Association (Washington County)– “Why is my Stream Orange?” Traditional and Crowdsourced Water Monitoring ($5,000): The project seeks to identify and target the most significant sources of abandoned mine drainage on Robinson Run, which is a tributary within the Lower Chartiers Creek Watershed. The funding provided by this grant will be used to purchase water quality monitoring equipment and produce a detailed water quality assessment utilizing volunteer-based biologic and chemical water monitoring.

-- Silver Spring Township (Cumberland County)– Stormwater Management for Your Home Workshop ($1,200): With this grant, the Township will provide rain barrels and host a workshop to inform residents of the environmental issues surrounding non-point source pollutants and to educate residents on properly mitigating these issues on residential properties.

-- Wilson West Middle School (Berks County)– Wilson TAP H2O - Teaching and Protecting Water ($6,500): Funding will help build a 1,000-square-foot pollinator rain garden, improve stormwater outflows during rain events, remove invasive species, improve local stream banks and complete an extensive native tree and plant restoration project in the wetland area around Little Cacoosing Creek, which is part of the Schuylkill River Watershed. Existing curriculum also will be enhanced with new areas of study for students and community residents through this grant.

A panel of judges selected the grant recipients from 22 applications, which were evaluated on such criteria as environmental need, innovation, community engagement and sustainability.

Pennsylvania American Water, a subsidiary of American Water, initiated the Environmental Grant Program in 2005 in Pennsylvania to support projects that protect or restore drinking water sources and surrounding watersheds.

Since then, American Water has expanded the annual program to many of its state subsidiaries across the nation. To date, Pennsylvania American Water has donated more than $490,000 to fund more than 100 projects.

Other Programs

PA American Water also sponsors an annual Protect Our Watersheds Student Art Contest and a Stream Of Learning College Scholarship Program in addition to the Environmental Grants Program within its service territory. Application periods are closed for this year.

Expedition Chesapeake Film

On March 5, Pennsylvania American Water announced an exclusive partnership with the soon-to-be-released iMax film, “Expedition Chesapeake, A Journey of Discovery.”

The film, hosted by biologist, wildlife conservationist and TV personality Jeff Corwin, takes its audience on an epic journey into the region’s vast and diverse watershed, exploring the connections between the millions of people, plants and animals that call it home.

The goal of “Expedition Chesapeake” is to create awareness of the threats facing watersheds and estuaries around the globe and to educate audiences about the roles they can play to protect and preserve vital water resources.

The film is now playing at the Whitaker Center for Science and the Arts in Harrisburg.  Click Here for more information.   Click Here for associated lesson plans and other educator and parent resources.

For more information on the company and for customers, visit the PA American Water website.

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[Posted: May 10, 2019]

5/13/2019