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Georgia Receives More Than $4 Million to Protect Watersheds

Release Date: 11/18/2005
Contact Information:

November 18, 2005

Contact: Laura Niles, niles.laura@epa.gov, Phone: (404) 562-8353

The Georgia Environmental Protection Division (EPD) has been awarded $4,687,800 in nonpoint source (NPS) pollution grant funds by EPA to assist state agencies and colleges, city and county governments, and local authorities in protecting and restoring Georgia watersheds. This Clean Water Act grant provides funding to help make water safe to drink, safe for swimming, boating, and safe for fish and shellfish consumption.

The NPS pollution grant will assist in the restoration of water bodies throughout Georgia that are currently being impacted by NPS pollution. In addition to federal funding, the program also will benefit from $3,130,838 in state and local matching funds. Projects selected for funding are determined by a competitive selection process and include coastal water quality monitoring, development of constructed wetlands, implementation of farming best management practices, development of watershed protection plans, Adopt-A-Stream, Georgia Project WET, and stream bank restoration. 

NPS pollution has been identified as the largest cause of water pollution in the U.S. and originates from many sources. As rainfall flows across landscape features such as yards, parking lots, roads, construction areas, farms, and forests, it accumulates contaminants such as fertilizers, petroleum by-products, sediment, and pesticides and deposits them in rivers, creeks, lakes, and coastal waters.

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