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Tennessee receives More Than $3 Million to Protect Watersheds

Release Date: 11/29/2005
Contact Information:

November 29, 2005

Contact: Laura Niles, [email protected], Phone: (404) 562-8353

The Tennessee Department of Agriculture has been awarded $3,194,600 in Nonpoint Source (NPS) pollution grant funds by EPA to assist state agencies, colleges and universities, non-profit organizations, city and county governments, and local authorities protect and restore Tennessee watersheds. This Clean Water Act grant provides funding to help make water safe for drinking, swimming, boating, and eating fish and shellfish.

This NPS pollution grant will be used to develop watershed-based restoration plans and install Best Management Practices on NPS pollution-impaired Tennessee streams. Funds will also be used to support development of pollution budgets (known as Total Maximum Daily Loads) in Tennessee watersheds. In addition to federal funding, the project will benefit from $5,635,655 in state and local matching funds. Specifically, the program seeks to reduce NPS pollution in order to achieve and maintain beneficial uses of water. Activities may include technical and financial assistance, education, and programs to monitor and assess the success of projects related to controlling NPS pollution.

NPS pollution, also known as polluted runoff, is the largest cause of water pollution in the U. S. and originates from many sources. As rainfall flows across the landscape, it accumulates contaminants on the ground and gathers additional soil and deposits it into rivers, lakes, ground water and wetlands. EPA empowers states, tribes, organizations, and stakeholders to work together in order to achieve better water quality on a watershed basis.

Since the establishment of the Nonpoint Source Management Program under the Clean Water Act in 1987, EPA has provided more than $1.6 billion in federal funding alone to state, territory, and tribal partners to protect and restore our nation’s waters. For more information about efforts to control NPS pollution in Tennessee, the Southeast, and around the nation, please visit: https://www.epa.gov/region4/water/nps/.