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BROWNER ANNOUNCES AVAILABILITY OF EXXON VALDEZ FUNDS FOR CHESAPEAKE BAY WATERSHED PROTECTION PROJECTS

Release Date: 03/19/97
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Browner said $177,000 will be used to restore forested buffers in the Anacostia River watershed and to restore the Longwell Run watershed in Westminster, Md. The Anacostia River and the Longwell Run watersheds are part of the larger Chesapeake Bay watershed, draining directly into the Bay.

The grants are part of a $4.5 million national fund resulting from the settlement of federal enforcement actions related to the Exxon Valdez oil spill, which occurred in l989. These funds are granted by EPA to projects to restore and protect waterways across the U.S.

Browner said, “Restoring buffers is a common sense, cost-effective way to keep pollution out of the rivers and streams that flow into the Bay. We’re pleased to assist Governor Glendening’s efforts to protect public health and the environment for all the communities of the Chesapeake Bay watershed.”

Maryland Governor Parris N. Glendening said, “Planting forest buffers along our waterways is essential to our overall program to protect and restore the Chesapeake Bay. Only through partnerships like this, and working with concerned citizens across the state, can we achieve the important goal of planting 600 miles of forest buffers in Maryland by the year 2010.”

At the last meeting of the Chesapeake Executive Council in October l996, Administrator Browner announced a new Chesapeake Bay forest buffer initiative, calling on all of the Bay program partners to increase the use of streamside (called “riparian”) buffers of forest areas on 2,010 miles of shoreline by the year 2010. Such buffers help to stem the flow of polluted runoff into the Bay. Currently, only half of the 110,000 miles of shoreline along the Bay and its rivers are buffered. The Chesapeake Bay program partners are the states of Maryland, Pennsylvania, Virginia, the District of Columbia, EPA and the Chesapeake Bay Commission, a tri-state legislative body.

Forest buffers are crucial to preserving and restoring the health of the Chesapeake Bay. Linking upland areas and waters that eventually enter the Bay, forest buffer research shows that they provide reductions of 30 to 98 percent of nutrients, sediment, pesticides and other pollutants in surface and groundwater. In addition, they hold the soil in place, stabilizing streambanks and reducing erosion. They also provide diversity of habitat for many species of fish, plants and wildlife.

The Anacostia has been identified by the Clinton Administration as one of seven priority watersheds and as one of the most endangered rivers in North America by the environmental group American Rivers. Funds for two of the three projects announced today are designated to help restore the watershed. The largest of these projects -- $150,000 -- will go to the State of Maryland for an “urban forestation” project to establish 50 acres of forest in Anacostia, using trees planted by volunteers to provide 14,000 feet of forest buffer. There will be an additional state match of $75,000. EPA also is providing $15,000 to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for a second Anacostia River watershed project to restore some of the channel and streamside buffers of the Little Paint Branch tributary, which drains to the Anacostia River. There will be a $30,000 match by the state and an in-kind match of personnel and equipment from other federal agencies.

The third project to restore the Longwell Run Watershed in Westminster, Md., damaged by years of unmanaged stormwater, will receive $12,000 in federal funds.


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