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EPA Gives Delaware Agency $45,075 to Protect Wetlands

Release Date: 10/7/1999
Contact Information: Roy Seneca (215) 814-5567

Roy Seneca (215) 814-5567

PHILADELPHIA - The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has awarded $45,075 to the Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control for wetland protection. This grant is one of 16 wetland protection grants totaling $1,274,000 that EPA has awarded to state and local governments in the mid-Atlantic region.

The grant will help the Delaware riparian buffer initiative project in Delaware’s New Castle and Kent counties protect water quality and wetland forest habitat, stabilize banks and control flooding and erosion.

Wetlands is the collective term for marshes, swamps, bogs and similar areas that develop between open water and dry land. These areas, found in every state in the nation, help improve water quality; reduce flood and storm damage; and provide important fish and wildlife habitat.

A critical goal in Vice President Gore’s Clean Water Action Plan is to slow down the loss of wetlands nationwide and by the year 2005, to restore at least 100,000 acres of wetlands each year. The wetlands grant program helps minimize losses by giving states and local governments financial support to develop and improve their wetlands protection programs.

Wetlands grants are awarded through a competitive process. Nationally, EPA appopriated $15 million in 1999. Applications for 2000 are due by November 1, 1999. For more information, please contact Alva Brunner, the regional grants coordinator at 215-814-2715.