EPA awards $2.4 million to three New England universities for water quality studies

Clark University, Dartmouth College, and the University of Connecticut, all located in New England, recently received $800,000 grants from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to study the economic value of protecting and improving water quality in local watersheds.
 
Clark, in Worcester, Massachusetts; Dartmouth, in Hanover, New Hampshire; and the University of Connecticut, in Storrs, Connecticut, will use the funding to determine how water quality can economically benefit local communities, allowing them to better weigh the costs of actions and investments that benefit nearby watersheds. This will include benefits such as improved public and environmental health as well as services available through high water quality, such as fishing, boating and other recreational activities.
 
"Clean water is a prerequisite to healthy people and healthy communities," EPA New England Regional Administrator Curt Spalding said. "This funding will help provide the kind of information to communities investing in water resources to help them decide what steps to take to get the most bang for their buck."
 
Clark will use its funding to study water quality benefits throughout the Northeast. Dartmouth will focus on the health of small streams, linking quality in these less-considered waterways to water quality indicators and ecosystem services that are already valued. The University of Connecticut will work to quantify the value of changes in water quality, both for the environment and the economy.