Delaware • New Jersey • Pennsylvania
New York • United States of America
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| Delaware Watershed Conservation Fund grantees pose with a large check. Photo by the DRBC. Click to view larger image. |
DRBC staff joined U.S. Senators Tom Carper and Chris Coons (Del.), the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, National Fish and Wildlife Foundation and partners in Wilmington, Del., for the announcement of the 2023 Delaware Watershed Conservation Fund (DWCF) grant awards.
A total of $14.9 million will be awarded to 36 projects to improve water quality, recreation access and fish and wildlife habitat in the Delaware River Basin.
The DRBC will receive a grant from the DWCF to support its water quality programs, including work to monitor emerging contaminants, model climate change impacts on fish habitat and further study how bacteria concentrations affect recreational uses of and access to urban stretches of the Delaware River. This grant will build upon ongoing technical work and advance our understanding of emerging water quality issues.
We thank the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation for supporting our project and congratulate the other awardees.
• Read the DRBC's News Release
• Information about the Delaware Watershed Conservation Fund (pdf)
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| DRBC's Elizabeth Brown gives remarks at the 2023 SRRF Press Event. Photo by the DRBC. Click to view larger image. |
The Schuylkill River Watershed is getting a little cleaner, thanks to the recent round of grant funding from the Schuylkill River Restoration Fund (SRRF). DRBC Director of External Affairs and Communications Elizabeth Brown participated in the announcement ceremony, held recently at Earl Township Park in Boyertown, Pa.
This year, $350,500 in grant money was awarded to six projects that will address habitat and stream restoration, agricultural pollution and abandoned mine drainage in the watershed.
• 2023 SRRF Grant Recipients: Project Summaries (pdf)
In addition to Ms. Brown, Schuylkill River Greenways (SRG) Deputy Director Tim Fenchel and other project partners also gave remarks. The SRG oversees/manages the SRRF.
The day also featured a bus tour to two local project sites that were previous SRRF awardees: the Willow Run Farm and a streambank restoration project on Pine Creek, both in Oley, Pa.
The SRRF is a great example of how partnering works to accomplish great things, bringing together government agencies, private industries, non-profit organizations, local businesses, and local community members to achieve positive environmental results for the Schuylkill River Watershed.
The SRRF resulted from a 2004 DRBC docket approval to Exelon (now Constellation) for its Limerick Generating Station. There was then - and still is today - a shared desire to assist the restoration of the Schuylkill River Watershed by providing large grants for on-the-ground improvements, focusing on projects that address stormwater runoff, agricultural pollution and drainage from abandoned mines. The DRBC approves the projects that are selected for grants using the Constellation funds and is one of several entities that sits on an advisory committee that chooses which projects get awarded annually.
Since being established in 2006, the SRRF has collected over $5 million - and leveraged another $5 million – for 136 projects that protect and restore the Schuylkill River.
Learn More:
• View SRG's Media Alert about the Bus Tour and Press Event (pdf)
• Learn more about the Schuylkill River Restoration Fund
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| One of the stops on the tour was Willow Run Farm in Oley, Pa., which received a SRRF grant for agricultural improvements. Photo by the DRBC. Click to view larger image. |
One of the stops on the tour was a |
One of the stops on the tour was a streambank restoration project on Pine Creek in Oley, Pa. Photo by the DRBC. Click to view larger image. |