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More federal grants may be available for stormwater pollution reduction projects, U.S. Rep. Matt Cartwright announced Thursday.
It’s of interest here because many municipalities must comply with a federal mandate to lower sediment, nitrogen and phosphorus washing into the Susquehanna River and, ultimately, the Chesapeake Bay.
While a few municipalities are trying to comply with the mandate on their own, the Wyoming Valley Sanitary Authority and Dallas Area Municipal Authority both set up regional compliance programs on behalf of multiple municipalities, which has resulted in new stormwater fees.
Cartwright, D-Moosic, said he has convinced his House Appropriations Committee colleagues to approve additional funding for sediment removal and programs to control polluted runoff in the bay’s watershed.
The committee doubled the total money available for grants that can go to communities in Northeastern Pennsylvania from $12 million to $24 million, his release said. As a result, overall Chesapeake Bay Restoration Program funding will rise from $73 million to $85 million.
The funding package is part of the 2020 fiscal year Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies budget bill the committee approved Wednesday afternoon.
Cartwright said he has heard from area property owners, including senior citizens, trying to “feed their families or living on a fixed income,” his release said.
”I believe this new federal funding will help reduce local fees over time. Every dollar spent by the federal government is a dollar saved by local communities and working families,” he wrote.
Organizations and local governments can use the grants to clean streams and address specific pollution problems, such as sediment erosion, degraded wetlands and forest buffers and or aging and faulty sewer and stormwater systems, he said. In the past, Wilkes-Barre had received this type of grant to improve stormwater management and reduce pollution released into the Susquehanna, it said.
The committee’s bill will head to the House floor, where it is expected to pass, and then advance to the Senate, his office said, noting that nobody in the Senate is deeply opposed.
Shortly after Cartwright’s announcement, the Harrisburg-based Chesapeake Bay Foundation put out its own statement thanking legislators supporting the increase.
The foundation’s release said President Donald Trump had called for cutting the bay program’s budget by 90 percent in his federal budget proposal earlier this year.
“While it’s clear the Trump administration doesn’t understand the value of restoring the Chesapeake Bay, Congress does,” wrote Lisa Feldt, the foundation’s environmental protection/restoration vice president. “This increased investment in the Chesapeake Bay Program will accelerate efforts to improve our regional environment and is supported by a bipartisan coalition of legislators.”
The pollution reduction mandate has prompted states and the federal government to work together to restore the bay, it said. In addition to grants, the federal funding “provides needed federal oversight to ensure states are progressing toward the pollution reduction goals.”
Improvements made to date have helped crabs to rebound, bay grasses to reach record numbers and large-scale oyster restoration efforts to become feasible, the foundation said.
“However, the recovery is fragile, and the bay is far from saved,” it said. “As climate change and federal environmental deregulation threaten the bay’s progress, we must do more to ensure clean water for future generations.”