Delaware River Watershed Initiative Wins National American Water Resources Assn. Award

The American Water Resources Association announced the Delaware River Watershed Initiative is the 2018 winner of the Association's prestigious Integrated Water Resources Management Award.

“It is so exciting to win the prestigious AWRA IWRM Award,” commented Carol Collier, senior advisor for Watershed Management and Policy at Drexel University, who submitted the nomination packet on behalf of the DRWI Coordinating Committee. “The Delaware River Watershed Initiative (DRWI) is a bottom-up, non-regulatory approach, engaging over 50 NGOs working with landowners and local government officials to improve the water quality and biological communities of local streams. The more local streams that are improved or protected, the better the whole Delaware River Basin will be. We thank AWRA for recognizing this example of IWRM.”

Launched in January 2014, the Delaware River Watershed Initiative (DRWI) involves over 50 non-government organizations (NGOs) focused on restoration of areas impacted by agricultural runoff, suburban stormwater, and aquifer depletion, and protection of forested areas in watersheds with high water quality.

New water quality models, mapping and GIS tools were developed specifically for the Delaware Basin, along with specific social and collaborative skills. The Initiative brought together non-government organizations that were used to competing for funds and resources.

Over the past four years, one can see that the NGOs are collaborating better and realizing that there is benefit to being part of something bigger.

On the ground results thus far:

-- Lands Restored: 8,818 acres with BMPs, 52 miles of riparian restoration, 744,108 pounds of nitrogen avoided, $7,964,952 invested with a $15,207,032 match leverage.

-- Lands Protected: 46 projects, 19,605 acres, 87 miles of forested stream banks, $8,168.204 invested with a $55,629,702 match leverage.

The AWRA Awards committee had this to say when announcing DRWI as winner of the association’s IWRM award, “The DRWI is quintessentially IWRM. We loved the project’s commitment to institution and relationship building, including developing a basin-wide community willing to self-fund needed projects in the future.”

For more information on this initiative, visit the Delaware River Watershed Initiative website.