$17.8 Million Awarded To Protect Polluted PA Streams, Farms

PENNSYLVANIA — A coalition of nonprofits have received two awards totaling more than $17.8 million to help protect and restore polluted streams and farms around Pennsylvania and combat the impacts of climate change, officials announced.

The funding includes $9.9 million to the Chesapeake Conservancy Program and $7.8 million to the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture as part of a national project to connect federal resources with local conservation experts.

“Our partners are experts in their fields and understand the challenges in their own backyards,” Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said in a statement. “Through (this program) we can tap into that knowledge, in partnership with producers and USDA, to come up with lasting solutions to the challenges that farmers, ranchers, and landowners face."

The Chesapeake Conservancy-led project involves 13 partner organizations who are working with around 30 farms and focusing their efforts on 18 polluted streams in the central part of the state. Officials hope to remove the "impaired" designation the streams currently have under the Clean Water Act.

Officials have not revealed extensive details of the measures that will be taken, but the Conservancy said that nutrient reductions in streams will be carefully monitored to track improvements of the work.

The Department of Agriculture project, meanwhile, will similarly install "climate smart practices and systems," btu instead involves a partnership with state and county agencies and their farmland preservation measures. That project also aims to help farms move toward organic production.

Officials will use a tool called COMET-Farm, which quantifies greenhouse gas emissions, to track success of their work.

Private landowners and other farms are welcome to join in the work. Applications are available through the involved local agencies or the area USDA service center.

All told, the USDA designated $197 million to 41 locally-led projects.