Delaware River Watershed Initiative Awards $1.1 Million In Restoration Grants In PA

The National Fish and Wildlife Foundation and the William Penn Foundation Wednesday jointly announced a third-year round of funding for the Delaware River Restoration Fund projects.

Twelve new or continuing water conservation and restoration grants totaling $1.77 million were unveiled at a news conference in Philadelphia. The 12 awards generated $3 million in match from the grantees, providing a total conservation impact of $4.77 million.

The recipients of $1,173,536 in grants in Pennsylvania are:

-- Brandywine Red Clay Alliance $99,997, $208,368 match: The Brandywine Red Clay Alliance  in Chester County will provide a model for collaboration among municipalities to achieve water quality improvements mandated through the Municipal Separate Storm Sewer System and Total Maximum Daily Loads programs by designing and developing restoration programs in pilot target areas. The project will accelerate water quality restoration and improve cost efficiencies of best management practices implementation for reducing runoff volume by using the pilot target areas as models for municipalities and other partners.

-- Darby Creek Valley Association $99,500, $78,000 match: Darby Creek Valley Association will build highly visible Green Stormwater Infrastructure (GSI) in an urban and suburban landscape within the Naylor’s Run Watershed in Delaware County, including rain gardens on medians of a major thoroughfare and 10 other rain gardens within the watershed. The installed rain gardens and GSI will collect, treat, detain, and recharge stormwater runoff from impervious areas which will reduce peak flow and pollutant load to the upper reaches of Naylor’s Run.

-- Pennsylvania Resources Council $91,014, $92,000 match: Pennsylvania Resources Council will engage residents in the Darby Cobbs Watershed located in Chester, Delaware, Montgomery and Philadelphia counties through completion of property audits and assistance with installation of simple, low-cost household stormwater best management practices (BMPs) such as rain barrels and rain gardens. The project will include development of a website, educational materials, and a database of relevant watershed/stormwater information generated through the audit process that will help residents implement BMPs to improve water quality.

-- Berks Nature $250,000, $1,567,854 match: Berks Nature will collaborate Berks County Conservation District and Natural Resources Conservation Service manure storage, stormwater, barnyard, riparian buffers, and streambank fencing. The installed BMPs will improve water quality by reducing nutrients available to surface, ground, storm, and drinking waters.
-- Brandywine Conservancy and Museum of Art $496,717, $606,300 match: The Brandywine Conservancy will collaborate with Stroud Water Research Center and Brandywine Red Clay Alliance to protect and restore 15.5 square miles of the headwaters of the West Branch Brandywine River in Salisbury Township, Lancaster County and Honey Brook Township, Chester County, PA. The project will restore surface water quality by educating and incentivizing farmers, providing technical assistance, and implementing agricultural best management practices, including 1.5 miles of fencing, riparian buffers, and completed farm conservation plans that will result in measurable improvements over time.

-- Horsham Township $50,000, $16,000 match: Horsham Township, Montgomery County will collaborate with Pennypack Ecological Restoration Trust and Temple University’s Center for Sustainable Communities to install two infiltration trenches and a rain garden at Lukens Park. The project will help with water quality and quantity by storing water and then letting it infiltrate directly into the ground.

-- Tookany/Tacony-Frankford Watershed Partnership $86,308, $34,158 match: The Tookany/Tacony-Frankford Watershed Partnership in Montgomery County will implement two green stormwater infrastructure techniques – a bio-retention feature and a grassed swale – and implement streambank stabilization. The project will prevent approximately 977,544 gallons of stormwater from entering the water body.

Click Here to read a copy of the complete announcement.

As part of the broader Delaware River Watershed Initiative, the William Penn Foundation provided $7 million in grant funding for NFWF to administer competitively through its Delaware River Restoration Fund in targeted regions throughout the Delaware River watershed, from 2013 to 2016.

Delaware River Restoration Fund grants are multi-state investments to restore habitats and deliver practices that ultimately improve and protect critical sources of drinking water.

"NFWF is proud of the great work of the Delaware Watershed grantees," said Rachel Dawson, senior manager for NFWF's Delaware River Restoration Fund. "Their efforts are a vital part of the Delaware River Watershed Initiative as a whole, and NFWF is thrilled to further advance progress made possible by the William Penn Foundation investment and this impressive group of conservation partners."

"The Delaware River is the longest undammed river east of the Mississippi, flowing freely for 330 miles," said Andrew Johnson, director of the water protection program for the William Penn Foundation. "It provides clean drinking water to more than 15 million people, many in major cities including Philadelphia; New York; Camden, N.J.; and Wilmington, Del. The 2016 slate of Delaware River Restoration Fund grants represents a strong commitment to restoring water quality and habitats in this iconic watershed, and we look forward to continued work with NFWF and its partners for broader water quality restoration."

With a Delaware River Restoration Fund investment of $1.77 million this year, combined with $3.9 million in grants over the last two years, NFWF's grantees are able to leverage the William Penn Foundation resources for more far-reaching, on-the-ground conservation and restoration.

For more information on this initiative, visit William Penn Foundation’s Delaware River Watershed Initiative webpage.