The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection has awarded $3 million in grant funding to local governments and organizations to restore the health of local watersheds around the state by reducing water pollution.
Among the recipients is the Schuylkill Headwaters Association, which is getting $292,450 to design and permit a reclamation project for abandoned de-silting basins encompassing 100 acres in Schuylkill Haven.
Coal waste will be removed, floodplain will be restored, a wetland will be created, and streambank will be stabilized and planted with a forest buffer along a segment of the Schuylkill River. The project is a priority of the Upper Schuylkill River Watershed Implementation Plan.
“Reducing current and future nonpoint source pollution is critical to restoring the health of the water ecosystems Pennsylvanians depend on,” DEP Acting Secretary Ramez Ziadeh said in announcing the grants. “It requires painstaking work based on understanding the impact that activities on land have on our streams and rivers. DEP is pleased to support communities across Pennsylvania who are working to improve their watersheds one stream segment, one land parcel, one best-practice project at a time.”
The grants target nonpoint source pollution, or pollution that enters streams and rivers from widespread sources, rather than from a single specific discharge point, such as a pipe. About 95 % of water-quality-impaired watersheds in Pennsylvania are affected by the following types of nonpoint source pollution:
Nitrogen, phosphorus, and sediment pollution from agricultural activities, urban stormwater runoff, and streambank and shoreline erosion; and Iron, aluminum, and acidity pollution associated with energy resource extraction and acid mine drainage (AMD).
Funding comes from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
Source: Berkshire mont
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