On June 22, PA American Water announced 11 watershed-related projects in its service territory across the Commonwealth will receive financial support through the company’s 2020 Environmental Grant Program.

The recipients will receive a share of grant funds totaling $40,000 for their community-based projects that improve, restore or protect watersheds.

A panel of judges selected the grant recipients from 30 applications, which were evaluated on environmental need, innovation, community engagement and sustainability.

“This grant program is a fantastic opportunity to recognize and support the organizations that work alongside us every day in our communities to protect our drinking water sources,” said Mike Doran, president of Pennsylvania American Water. “Our 2020 grant recipients are thinking creatively to exhibit environmental stewardship at the most local level.”

The 2020 grant projects include:

-- Allegheny CleanWays – Monongahela River Cleanup Series ($4,100): With this funding, volunteers will conduct stream and riverbank cleanups in the Allegheny County portion of the Monongahela River watershed. The group’s goal is to hold 10 cleanups and remove approximately 12,000 pounds of debris and 200 tires.

-- Armstrong Conservation District – Mobile Environmental Display Exhibit Project ($8,000):

Funding will go toward the maintenance and operation of the H20h! On the Go! mobile environmental display – a traveling, interactive and educational display used to promote conservation of natural resources in underserved rural communities in the Ohio River watershed.

-- Carnegie Borough – Pitcher Park Memorial Skatepark Rain Garden Project ($1,200): Funding will be used to plan, design, build and plant a rain garden to absorb excess runoff that currently flows through the skatepark and picks up flood-causing sediment before draining into the Borough’s stormwater system.

-- Citizens for a Healthy Jessup – Stormwater Pollution Education Workshops ($1,800): The grant will go towards community stormwater management workshops and a three-dimensional, interactive stormwater model that shows how runoff flows through watersheds and into bodies of water.

-- Dauphin County Conservation District – Stormwater Management for Homeowners Workshop ($2,200): 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.

-- Eastern PA Coalition for Abandoned Mine Reclamation – Mill Creek, Luzerne County Stream Temperature Watershed Monitoring Project ($7,500): This project will deploy stream temperature monitoring devices throughout the Mill Creek Watershed. The monitors will gather continuous data for five years and will provide information for a temperature database for the watershed as well as opportunities for environmental education and community outreach.

-- Ellwood City Borough – Five Point Community Gardens Phase II ($1,000): Funding will be used to install additional gardens and stormwater improvements as part of the rehabilitation of Five Point Park, a project that is creating multiple community gardens that will be used for stormwater management, recreation and food production.

-- John James Audubon Center Mill Grove– Audubon and CCATE: Student-Designed Urban Stormwater Management Project ($2,500): Using this funding, the Audubon Center will work with Centro de Cultura Arte Trabajo y Educacion (CCATE), Norristown’s largest Latinx community center, to design and install stormwater management gardens at CCATE’s new site. Native trees, plants and shrubs will be purchased and planted, and rain barrels and signage will also be installed.

-- Lehman Sanctuary – Storm Water Management Grassland Swale/Rain Garden ($5,500): This grant will be used to mitigate stormwater infiltration by creating a new habitat with a vegetative swale and rain garden system to re-channel runoff. The habitat will be vegetated with flood tolerant, erosion-resistant plants and will contain and filter stormwater flowing from nearby impervious surfaces.

-- Londonderry Township – Water Quality Testing for the Conewago Creek Restoration Project ($1,200): This grant will be used for materials and lab analysis to produce scientific water quality data for use in the ongoing Conewago Creek Restoration and other future projects.

-- Upper Allen Township – Grantham Park Pond Restoration Phase I ($5,000): This funding will be used towards a Grantham Park pond rehabilitation project. A pond aeration system and microbial products will be added to restore ecological balance to the pond, and native buffer vegetation will be planted on the shorelines.

PA American Water initiated its Environmental Grant Program in 2005 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 $530,000 to fund more than 100 projects.

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[Posted: June 22, 2020]

6/29/2020