EPA news: EPA awards $1.8 million to West Virginia to control polluted runoff, restore water quality

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EPA awards $1.8 million to West Virginia
to control polluted runoff, restore water quality

PHILADELPHIA (Nov. 18, 2020) – The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) today announced a $1,806,000 grant to the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection to improve water quality in rivers and streams throughout the state.

This grant is part of EPA’s Nonpoint Source Implementation Grant Program, as outlined in Section 319 of the Clean Water Act to control water pollution.

“This grant supports preserving and protecting West Virginia’s water resources and ensuring communities have clean water,” said EPA Mid-Atlantic Regional Administrator Cosmo Servidio. “By working in partnership with West Virginia, we can help implement necessary best management practices to reduce nonpoint source pollution in communities throughout the state.”

Nonpoint source pollution is caused when rainfall or snowmelt, moving over and through the ground, picks up and carries natural and human-made pollutants, depositing them into lakes, rivers, wetlands, coastal waters and groundwater.

Controlling nonpoint source pollution is especially important since one in three Americans get their drinking water from public systems that rely on seasonal and rain-dependent streams.

The projects funded with this grant focus on watersheds with water quality impairments caused by polluted run-off from nonpoint sources. Nonpoint source implementation projects include structural and non-structural best management practices, watershed planning, monitoring, technology demonstrations, and a variety of education/outreach programs.

Learn more about successful nonpoint source reduction projects at: https://www.epa.gov/nps