2011 WREN Grants Now Available to Help Protect Local PA Water Resources!

WREN 2011 Source Water Protection Education  & Community Watershed Education Grants are now available!

WREN Projects work to protect and improve our most precious natural resource, our water.

WREN Grant Applications due March 25, 2011
Download Guidance and Grant Applications at:  http://wren.palwv.org/grants/local.html

The Water Resources Education Network (WREN), a project of the League of Women Voters of PA CEF, has funding available up to $5,000* to help launch community projects that raise awareness and educate citizens about ways to keep Pennsylvania water resources clean and healthy.  Go to http://wren.palwv.org/local.htm  to see terrific projects we’ve already funded to get creative ideas.  No need to re-invent the wheel.  WREN projects encourage individual and public policy actions that will protect and improve local water resources now and for future generations.  We look for projects that help pinpoint ways residents and local leaders can take action to reduce risk and prevent pollution of the lakes, rivers, streams, springs, and groundwater that serve as sources of drinking water, and places where we fish, swim and enjoy. 

For 2011, WREN offers two separate funding tracks:  a Source Water Protection Education Project track and a Watershed Protection Education Project track.   Project activity timeframe:  July 1, 2011 – June 30, 2012.

The WREN Source Water Protection Education Grant Program seeks to develop a network of Source Water Environmental Education Teams (SWEETs) to help Pennsylvania communities and public water suppliers conduct grass roots public education and to implement prevention actions at the local level that will reduce risks to public water sources.   The goal of the WREN Source Water Protection (SWP) Education Grant Program is to support local partnerships that will conduct community education and help residents and businesses implement practical, step by step solutions to reduce risk of contamination and protect the rivers, streams, lakes, and aquifers Pennsylvanians rely upon for their public drinking water. Local source water protection programs provide an extra margin of safety to water coming out of the tap, and offer the best line of defense to protect public health, ensure high quality drinking water for future generations, and keep water treatment costs down.

Each SWEET Team shall utilize visual teaching aids such source water protection maps, ground water flow model (that demonstrates the behavior of ground water, movement of contamination, and the relationship of ground water to surface water), and the Enviroscape® Drinking Water & Wastewater Treatment Model.   Project must include at least one community water system as an active partner in the project with a defined role.   Grant Awards: *Local project awards of up to $5,000, one Regional  Source Water Protection project up to $8,000  will be awarded.  Get all the details at: http://wren.palwv.org/grants/SourceWaterEducation.html.

The WREN Watershed Protection Education Grant Program seeks to build awareness and educate Pennsylvania residents and local officials about their roles as environmental stewards, and suggest specific actions that citizens can take at home, at work, and within the community to protect, improve, or remediate the watershed from the impacts of polluted runoff, also known as nonpoint source pollution. To encourage connection to local land use decisions, a municipality is required to be an active partner in the project. 

Nonpoint source pollution includes: drainage or runoff from resource extraction, abandoned coal mines, oil or gas wells;  inadequate erosion control practices during construction and urban runoff;  improper agricultural practices (erosion and sedimentation, nutrient management, pesticide application);  improper timber harvesting practices;  failing on-lot septic systems or other abandoned waste disposal sites; or altered hydrology (changing the way water flows through an area) due to impervious surface area, stormwater, and floodplain management, riparian buffers, wetlands, natural stream channels. Project must include a municipality as an active partner in the project with a defined role.   Grant award: up to $5,000 per project.  Get all the details at http://wren.palwv.org/grants/local.html.

We’ve provided over $1.8 million in watershed education funding to over 277 community partnerships in Pennsylvania. Join us.   You will make a difference.  Questions? Call Julie Kollar, WREN Project Director at 267-468-0555 or email:   juliekwren@verizon.net