The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection has awarded $19.3 million in 2024 Countywide Action Plan Implementation Grants to county teams across Pennsylvania’s share of the Chesapeake Bay Watershed. These grants support efforts in reducing nutrient and sediment pollution to restore the health of local streams, rivers, and lakes.
“These grants have proven to be effective in boosting projects restoring Pennsylvania streams, rivers and lakes,” said DEP Interim Acting Secretary Jessica Shirley. “Since 2021, we’ve seen teams implement everything from streambank tree plantings to livestock crossing installations. I’m excited to see the ingenuity and progress made by this year’s grant recipients. Their work benefits not only their communities, but our Commonwealth and beyond.”
Nutrient pollution and eroded sediment can enter streams, rivers and lakes from wastewater treatment and other activities on land, such as using too much fertilizer, plowing and tilling farm fields, stripping away trees and vegetation, and expanding concrete and paved surfaces. Nutrient pollution like nitrogen and phosphorus can cause algal blooms that block sunlight from reaching the underwater grasses that provide critical food and habitat for aquatic life. In addition to also blocking sunlight by making the water cloudy, sediment pollution like soil runoff smothers creatures that live at the bottom of rivers, streams, and the Chesapeake Bay – like oysters, clams, mussels, worms, and insects.
Source: pennwatch.org
Photo Credit: gettyimages-pixdeluxe
Categories: Pennsylvania, General