The following press release was published by the US EPA on Oct. 4. It is reproduced in full below.
PHILADELPHIA (October 4, 2021) – The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced a $1,781,700 grant today to the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality to improve water quality in rivers and streams throughout the state.
The grant is part of EPA's Nonpoint Source Implementation Grant Program outlined in Section 319 of the Clean Water Act, to control water pollution.
“With this funding, EPA supports the preservation and protection of Virginia’s water resources for communities throughout the state,” said EPA Mid-Atlantic Acting Regional Administrator Diana Esher. “By working in partnership with Virginia, we can reduce nonpoint source pollution and help ensure that all Virginian’s have clean water.”
Nonpoint source pollution is caused when rainfall or snowmelt, moving over and through the ground, picks up and carries natural and human-made pollutants, depositing them into lakes, rivers, wetlands, coastal waters and groundwater.
Controlling nonpoint source pollution is especially important since one in three Americans get their drinking water from public systems that rely on seasonal and rain-dependent streams.
The projects funded with this grant focus on watersheds with water quality impairments caused by polluted run-off from nonpoint sources. Nonpoint source implementation projects include structural and non-structural best management practices, watershed planning, monitoring, technology demonstrations, and a variety of education/outreach programs.
Learn more about successful nonpoint source reduction projects at: https://www.epa.gov/nps
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Source: US EPA
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