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Center
for the Inland Bays Receives EPA Grant for Non-Point Source
Pollution Remediation
The U.S. Environmental Protection
Agency has awarded
a grant of
$506,984 to the Center for the Inland
Bays in Lewes, Delaware,
for efforts to study, reduce and prevent nutrient pollution in
Delaware’s Inland Bays. The State
of Delaware has matched
the EPA funds with a $505,000 grant.
“EPA is pleased to be a partner in the Center for the Inland
Bays’ aggressive approach to cleaning up areas of the estuary
that have been impaired by stormwater related runoff. The projects
supported by this funding are vital to protect and improve water
quality and to preserve the natural habitat,” said Donald
S. Welsh, administrator for EPA’s mid-Atlantic region.
The grant funding focuses on reducing non-point source pollution,
which is a major cause of the nutrient pollution in the bays. The
main non-point sources of nutrients that reach the bays are agriculture
and failing septic systems within the bays’ watershed, as
well as fertilizers applied to lawns and golf courses. The
Center’s
research projects are designed to renew dwindling resources and
establish best management practices to reduce the amount of pollutants
entering the bays.
The Center is funding ten research projects this year, including
projects to study the causes and prevention of macroalgae blooms
such as sea lettuce (Ulva latuca), harmful algal blooms of species
such as the brown tide organism Aureococcus anophageafferens and
other algal species. Other projects monitor the viability
of the bays to reestablish and maintain fisheries such as shellfish.
The Center also funds educational efforts to teach the public
about ways that they can help restore the estuaries. For
example, the Clean
Marina Program will receive funds to teach marina
owners and users how to reduce their environmental impacts on the
bays.
For more information, visit the Center
for the Inland Bays website.
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