11/2/2005

PR Newswire

140 Critical Projects in 50 Counties First to Receive Funding

HARRISBURG, Pa., Governor Edward G. Rendell today said Pennsylvania is taking aggressive steps to clean up its rivers and streams, improve parks, revitalize abandoned industrial sites and protect open space and preserve farmland.

The Governor announced an investment of $65 million in environmental projects that will help scores of Pennsylvania communities.

Additionally, Governor Rendell said all 67 counties will now be able to apply for $90 million, allocated on a county-by-county basis, for eligible environmental projects. Information on how to apply is going directly to counties today, the Governor added.

"With these projects we deliver on our promise to voters, who approved a $625 million bond issue in May, to make Pennsylvania healthier, a better place to live and more competitive in attracting and supporting business investment," Governor Rendell said. "In just three months since we reached a final agreement with the legislature, we have our first list of projects. No state is doing more to protect its quality of life or to safeguard tomorrow."

"Pennsylvania is making an investment in its future and our families, communities and businesses will all share the benefits," Governor Rendell said. "With this funding we will get 140 critical projects in 50 counties underway, projects that have languished for years because we lacked the money. This is good news for all Pennsylvanians."

The Governor added that the first installment of $65 million in grants under Growing Greener II brings to fruition more than a year of aggressive efforts to address some of the state's most pressing environmental problems and help the state win the race for revitalized communities, new business and job creation.

  Governor Rendell said the projects fall into various categories including: 

   - $31.5 million to upgrade state parks and improve state forests 

   - $14 million to clean up acid mine drainage and other water quality improvements (watershed grants) 

   - $9.7 million to clean former industrial sites (brownfields) 

   - $3 million to upgrade our water and sewer infrastructure 

   - $3.7 million for open space protection 

   - $2.2 million to use mine water as an economic resource 

   - $700,000 to remove impacts from dams 

Nearly one-quarter of the grants will be used to clean up the state's rivers and streams, the Governor said. The largest investment, $7.7 million, is going to conservation districts that administer the Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program, which pays farmers to take land along streams out of production to help decrease agricultural related run-off into major waterways that feed into the Chesapeake Bay, Governor Rendell added.

"With these resources we can move faster to clear polluted and abandoned industrial sites so we can attract new businesses and new jobs," Governor Rendell said.

The Governor noted that this is not the only planned announcement of environmental grants. He said additional Open Space grants, administered by the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources will be announced this winter. The Department of Environmental Protection also will soon open its round of Growing Greener I and Growing Greener II grants.

And the Department of Agriculture is working with counties to identify state funds needed to match county funds for farmland preservation grants. That announcement is expected in the spring, the Governor said.

Voters in May approved a $625 million bond issue to clean up rivers and streams; protect natural areas, open spaces and working farms; and shore up key programs to improve quality of life and revitalize communities across the commonwealth.

The Rendell Administration is committed to creating a first-rate public education system, protecting our most vulnerable citizens and continuing economic investment to support our communities and businesses.  

West Hanover Township Water and Sewer Authority - $500,000 for sewer upgrades. The West Hanover Township Water & Sewer Authority owns and operates a 780,000-gallon-per-day wastewater treatment plant serving West Hanover Township. The plant is required to remover organics, suspended solids, ammonia-nitrogen, and phosphorus from the wastewater prior to discharging the treated effluent to a tributary of the Manada Creek. The Authority has chosen to replace the post-lime addition process with a vermicomposting process. Vermicomposting is a sustainable process that uses earthworms in a raised bed reactor to further treat the biosolids to a level that satisfies DEP criteria for "exceptional quality" without the addition of chemicals and the odors associated with the post-lime treatment process, or the energy input required by a heat-drying process.