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EPA Awards $55,600 to Promote Deckers Creek Restoration

Release Date: 08/20/2012
Contact Information: David Sternberg, (215) 814-5548, sternberg.david@epa.gov

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. (August 20, 2012) – The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency today joined city, state and non-profit officials in announcing $55,600 in federal funding to help pave the way for cleaning up mine pollution affecting Deckers Creek and highlighting the economic benefits of creek restoration.

“Today we begin a new chapter in the history of Deckers Creek – one holding great promise for both the health of the creek and the city’s economy,” said EPA Regional Administrator Shawn M. Garvin. “This project clarifies the connection between economic investment and resource restoration, while generating the necessary information for treating polluted water.”

The highly competitive grant from the EPA Urban Waters program will fund a study of an abandoned underground coal mine discharging polluted water into Deckers Creek, which runs for three miles through the City of Morgantown. The study will aid in the eventual treatment of the mine water.

The funds will also help initiate a public education campaign to advise business owners and the city’s development community about the economic potential of restoring Deckers Creek, and forming a community partnership to take the next steps in the process.

The grant was awarded to Friends of Deckers Creek, a community-based non-profit watershed group working to clean up Deckers Creek, a tributary of the Monongahela River that flows from Preston County into Monongalia County, W.Va. The creek is impacted by acid mine drainage and other pollution issues.

EPA’s Urban Waters program helps cities unleash the potential of their waterways and land around them. The funding supports communities’ efforts to access, improve and benefit from their urban waters and surrounding land.

Information on EPA’s Urban Waters program: https://www.epa.gov/urbanwaters/index.html.