U.S. EPA awards $4.6M for coastal watershed projects

U.S. SEN. Jack F. Reed said the federal funding "will help the federal government and local partners take a strategic, scientific-based approach to protecting and improving the health of the bay and the waters that feed into it." / COURTESY OFFICE OF U.S. SEN. JACK F. REED
U.S. SEN. Jack F. Reed said the federal funding "will help the federal government and local partners take a strategic, scientific-based approach to protecting and improving the health of the bay and the waters that feed into it." / COURTESY OFFICE OF U.S. SEN. JACK F. REED

BOSTON – More than $4.6 million has been awarded by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for coastal watershed efforts in Rhode Island and Massachusetts.

Eight projects have been selected for grant funding, which will be used to identify, test and promote new regional approaches in areas, and will include water monitoring, watershed planning, nutrient and/or septic management, and resilience to climate change.
These projects are funded through EPA’s Southeast New England Program.
The program’s geographic area encompasses coastal watersheds from Westerly to Chatham, Mass., and includes Narragansett Bay and all other Rhode Island coastal waters, as well as Buzzards Bay, and southern Cape Cod as well as the islands of Block Island, Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket.

“The stresses challenging the coastal watersheds of Southeast New England are regional and complex. With support from his congressional colleagues and other partners, [U.S. Sen. Jack F.] Reed’s leadership in creating this program is making a lasting difference in the way we approach environmental protection. The proof is in these eight new projects – together they reach up into the Taunton watershed and down to Rhode Island’s Salt Ponds and Aquidneck Island, cross Buzzards Bay to the middle of Cape Cod, explore septic system improvements in multiple states, and jump to Martha’s Vineyard. We see this as the way of the future for doing business,” Curt Spalding, regional administrator for EPA’s New England office, said in a statement.

Said Reed, “We need regional solutions to protect the health and beauty of the bay, our watershed and coastal ecosystem. This federal funding will help the federal government and local partners take a strategic, scientific-based approach to protecting and improving the health of the bay and the waters that feed into it.”

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Reed included $7 million for SNEP programs in the 2016 Omnibus Appropriations bill, and in addition to the grants, remaining funds will be directed toward Narragansett Bay clean up.
The following entities received 2016 Southeast New England Program Grants:

  • Aquidneck Island Planning Commission: $996,820 for the Aquidneck Island Water Quality Initiative
  • Barnstable County Department of Health and Environment and Massachusetts Alternative Septic System Test Center: $728,511 for Assessment of Non-Proprietary Passive Nitrogen Removing Septic Systems
  • Association to Preserve Cape Cod: $472,574 for Assessment of Non-Proprietary Passive Nitrogen Removing Septic Systems
  • Massachusetts Audubon Society: $560,636 for Integrating Ecosystem Services Functions and Values into Land-Use Decision Making in the Narragansett Bay Watershed
  • Town of Charlestown: $674,201 for Charlestown Coastal Watershed Protection and Restoration Program
  • The Ecosystem, Center, Marine Biological Laboratory: $402,461 for Assessing Climate Effects on Watershed and Stormwater Nitrogen Loading and Vulnerabilities in Meeting TMDLs in Buzzards Bay and Cape Cod
  • Wampanoag Tribe of Aquinnah: $275,790 for Tribal Common Lands Ecological Enhancements and Resiliency Project
  • University of Massachusetts Dartmouth School for Marine Science and Technology: $525,967 for Quantifying Potential for Oyster Aquaculture and Impacts on Estuarine Nitrogen-Related Water Quality

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