EPA Awards $55,600 to Promote Deckers Creek Restoration

Press release:

EPA Awards $55,600 to Promote Deckers Creek Restoration

Friends of Deckers Creek in W.V. Receives EPA Urban Waters Small Grant

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: http://www.epa.gov/urbanwaters/index.html.

Hinkson Creek Meeting Scheduled March 28 in Columbia, MO

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Region 7

901 N. Fifth St., Kansas City, KS 66101

Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, and Nine Tribal Nations

Hinkson Creek Meeting Scheduled March 28 in Columbia, Mo.

Contact Information: Kris Lancaster, 913-551-7557, lancaster.kris@epa.gov

Environmental News

NEWS MEDIA ADVISORY

(Kansas City, Kan., March 20, 2012) - Representatives of EPA; Missouri Department of Natural Resources; Boone County, Mo., Commission; City of Columbia, Mo.; and University of Missouri will host a public informational meeting on March 28 in Columbia, Mo., about an innovative partnership to carry out a pollutant reduction plan to restore Hinkson Creek’s water quality.

A cooperative agreement will be announced which lays out goals and objectives to improve the creek’s water quality. The agreement aims to use each entity’s specific authority to produce a healthy stream attaining all of its designated beneficial uses.

WHAT: Public informational meeting on Hinkson Creek pollutant reduction plan

WHEN: 4:00 p.m. to 5:30 p.m., Wednesday, March 28, 2012; and remarks at 5:15 p.m.

WHERE: Activity and Recreation Center, Room A, 1701 West Ash Street, Columbia, Mo. 65203

WHO: Remarks by EPA Regional Administrator Karl Brooks; Missouri Department of Natural Resources Director Sarah Parker Pauley; Boone County Presiding Commissioner Dan Atwill; Boone County Commissioner Karen Miller; and Mayor of Columbia Bob McDavid.

EPA established a Total Maximum Daily Load, or pollutant reduction plan, for Hinkson Creek on January 28, 2011. The plan calls for significant pollutant reductions to improve the stream’s water quality, as required by the Clean Water Act.

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