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EPA Selects W. Va. Environmental Education Project For $200,000 Sustainable Development Challenge Grant

Release Date: 5/11/1999
Contact Information: Donna M. Heron (215) 814-5113

MOYERS, W. Va. -- The Lightstone Foundation Inc., Moyers, W. Va., is one of 41 applicants nationwide selected for funding under the EPA’s Sustainable Development Challenge Grant program.

Now in its third year, the challenge grants provide seed money to encourage creative local approaches and cooperation to improve the environment. It funds community partnerships among citizens, non-profit organizations, government and business.

In 1998, $5 million was allocated to promote sustainable development projects throughout the U.S. Across the nation, 656 proposals were submitted requesting a total of $82 million. In Region III, 73 proposals were submitted and four were selected for funding.

The Lightstone Foundation will develop a regional stewardship center on a 600-acre certified organic farm located at the headwaters of the Potomac River. The Lightstone Foundation is joining with Almost Heaven, Habitat for Humanity, and the school systems of Grant, Hampshire, Mineral and Monroe Counties on this three-year project.

The regional stewardship center will work with the community to practice and support sustainable family farming, natural resources management and rural community-based development. The center will also work on improving water quality, constructing affording housing for low-income households and developing entrepreneurial opportunities.

Three other sustainable development grants were awarded in EPA Region III -- to the Sustainable Community Initiatives in Washington, DC for job training; Prince George’s County Department of Environmental Resources, Landover, Md., for improvements along the Anacostia River and watershed; and the Greensgrow Philadelphia Project, Philadelphia, Pa., for an urban farming project on a remediated brownfield site.

Once these grants are finalized, the EPA Sustainable Development Challenge Grant program will have funded 96 projects totalling $10.5 million.

Information about the Sustainable Development Challenge Grant Program, including the 41 new awards, can be obtained at: www.epa.gov/ecocommunity. A new request for proposals for the 1999/2000 program will be announced this summer.