Because NPS does not come from a single source, pipe, or facility, it is typically more difficult to address. Under Section 319, states, territories, and tribes receive grant money from EPA that supports a wide variety of activities such as technical and financial assistance, education, training, demonstration projects, and monitoring to assess the success of specific nonpoint source implementation projects.
Announced in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, EPA Mid-Atlantic Regional Administrator Adam Ortiz highlighted the significant impact this funding has had since Congress enacted the program in 1987. In a joint press conference with the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (PADEP), Ortiz and state and local leaders discussed the success of past efforts before unveiling DEP’s most recently selected projects and announcing the newly awarded $4.8 million grant package to Pennsylvania.
“Nearly 40 years ago, our elected leaders understood the importance of addressing things like runoff from farms and urban areas, but what they couldn’t have known back then is exactly how important these grants would become,” said Adam Ortiz, EPA’s Mid-Atlantic Regional Administrator. “Because of the strategic and intentional efforts to address this type of pollution, Pennsylvania is improving not only its local water quality but also that of downstream waters like the Chesapeake Bay and Delaware River watersheds.”
Using last year’s Section 319 grant, Pennsylvania selected 12 projects that are expected to reduce runoff, stabilize stream banks, and fund planning that will make for efficient implementation moving forward. Examples include:
- Doc Fritchey Chapter of Trout Unlimited, Lebanon County: The project proposes to restore a floodplain, create five acres of wetlands, and install more than 10 acres of riparian buffers.
- Chesapeake Bay Foundation, Synder County: This proposal includes the design and implementation of 100 new forested riparian buffer acres and the continuation of a farm incentives program that will help pay for new best management practices via vouchers.
- Lancaster County Conservation District, Lancaster County: This project will restore a stream channel in the Conowingo Creek and protect an in-stream aquatic habitat.
