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Alabama Receives More Than $3 Million to Protect Watersheds

Release Date: 12/13/2005
Contact Information: Contact: Laura Niles, niles.laura@epa.gov , Phone: (404) 562-8353

The Alabama Department of Environmental Management (ADEM) has been awarded $3,891,251 in Nonpoint Source (NPS) Pollution grant funds by EPA to protect and restore water quality throughout Alabama . This Clean Water Act grant provides funding to address polluted runoff by implementing demonstration projects and installing best management practices to help make water safe for drinking, swimming, boating, and eating fish and shellfish.

This NPS pollution grant will help restore the waters in Alabama that are currently affected by NPS pollution. In addition to federal funding, the project will also benefit from $2,623,000 in state and local matching funds. Specifically, ADEM will restore waters by targeting priority watersheds as in previous years. Projects selected for funding are determined by a competitive selection process and include: water quality monitoring and assessments, volunteer monitoring, erosion and sediment control training, NPS pollution education and outreach, river basin planning, program administration, and the implementation of priority watershed projects.

NPS pollution, also known as polluted runoff, is the largest cause of water pollution in the U.S. and originates from many sources. As rainfall flows across the landscape, it accumulates contaminants on the ground and erodes exposed soil and deposits it into rivers, lakes, ground water, wetlands, and coastal areas. EPA empowers states, tribes, organizations, and stakeholders to work together in order to achieve better water quality through a watershed basis.

Since the establishment of the Nonpoint Source Management Program under the Clean Water Act in 1987, EPA has provided to state, territory, and tribal partners more than $1.6 billion in federal funding alone, to protect and restore our nation's waters. For more information about efforts to control NPS pollution in Alabama , the southeast, and around the nation, please visit: https://www.epa.gov/region4/water/nps/ .