Plan to restore bay set to launch

Region 9, WVDEP joining to reduce water pollution

March 29, 2011 - By John McVey, Journal staff writer

BERKELEY SPRINGS - Local and state officials are preparing to launch the second phase of the Chesapeake Bay restoration program in West Virginia.

The Eastern Panhandle Regional Planning and Development Council (Region 9) and the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection are partnering with several public- and private-sector groups to implement Phase II of the Watershed Improvement Plan, or WIP, for the Chesapeake Bay.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has imposed very strict pollution limits on states within the bay watershed. West Virginia's greater, eight-county Eastern Panhandle is in the Potomac River watershed, and the Potomac River is one of the bay's major tributaries.

States must make drastic reductions in the amount of nutrients, that is nitrogen and phosphorus, and sediment that gets into the bay by way of its tributaries.

Phase I of the WVDEP's improvement plan was submitted in November, and the EPA's final report was issued at the end of December. Now, the improvement plans must be implemented on the local level.

Members of Region 9 were updated on the project at the council's meeting Monday in Berkeley Springs.

WVDEP has received a $30,000 EPA grant to undertake Phase II, said Alana Hartman, WVDEP Potomac Basin coordinator.

The grant is being matched by Region 9 with $10,000 in cash and $20,000 in administrative duties, said Carol Goolsby, Region 9 executive director.

Delta Development Group Inc. of Mechanicsburg, Pa., is facilitating the project.

The Region 9 project will focus on three areas in which to implement strategies to reduce pollution in the local Potomac River watershed, Troy Truax, Delta vice president, explained Monday.

Work groups will be formed to reduce pollution from wastewater treatment facilities and pollution from stormwater runoff from developed lands and industrial sites, he said.

Also, a third working group that was recommended by Truax and Delta, consisting of elected officials from Berkeley, Jefferson and Morgan counties as well as local municipalities, will be formed to establish "policy and legislative decisions necessary for achieving many of the WIP's ... objectives," according to the project's work statement.

In addition to implementing the WIP, the groups will be asked to focus on a strategy for a "qualitative evaluation of a nutrient credit trading system between non-point (for example, farms) and point (for example, wastewater treatment plants) to offset the costs of physical plant upgrades through the use of credits," according to the work statement.

Work groups for agriculture and forestry sectors will be formed by WVDEP and EPA's technical assistance consultant, TetraTech, officials said.

Truax said that kick-off meetings will be held in late April or early May for the three work groups under Region 9's project.

Each group will meet at least three times over the next few months, and the project will culminate with a day-long Chesapeake Bay summit, drawing all the work groups together for an open discussion of the issues, concerns and strategies, Truax added.

The Phase II draft plan must be submitted to EPA by June 1, and the final plan must be submitted by Nov. 1, officials said.

New grant program available in tri-couty

Potomac Highlands Grant Program would fund eco-restoration projects

March 3, 2011 - By John McVey, Journal staff writer

MARTINSBURG - The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced Tuesday a new grant program to help restore and protect waterways, woodlands and clean water in Berkeley, Jefferson and Morgan counties, according to a news release from American Rivers, which will administer the program.

The $1.8 million Potomac Highlands Implementation Grant Program will fund projects through a competitive process, Amy Kober, senior director of communications for American Rivers, said in a telephone interview Wednesday.

"We'll look for the projects with the greatest benefit and that are ready to go," she said. "We're excited to talk with all groups, anyone interested in working with the program."

In addition to the tri-county, West Virginia's Hampshire, Hardy, Mineral, Grant, Randolph, Pocahontas and Tucker counties are included in the Potomac Highlands area as well as counties in south-central Pennsylvania, western Maryland and northwest Virginia.

There will be no set-asides dedicated specifically for projects in the various states, counties or regions, Kober said. Projects will compete for funding against other projects regardless of location.

Stephanie Lindloff, senior director of American Rivers' river restoration program, said that the organization is in the process of finalizing with the EPA who exactly the recipients of the grants can be.

"We expect recipients to include local governments - municipalities, counties - state governments, nonprofit organizations, academic institutions, for-profit groups and individuals," she said in a telephone interview Wednesday.

"The grants will fund a whole range of projects and these will be significant awards, large grants," Lindloff added.

Grants are expected to range between $150,000 and $300,000, the news release indicates, and will be available for the implementation phase of projects, not for the planning and design phase of projects.

Also, the release says that "a 1 to 1 federal-to-nonfederal match will be strongly preferred."

A single-round grant award is planned, according to the release. Application details are expected to be released in the spring, and proposals probably will be due in August, the release states.

According to the release, Congress directed the EPA in 2002 to establish and implement the Mid-Atlantic Highlands Action Program to improve the natural resources and socio-economic conditions in the region, which includes all of West Virginia, most all of Pennsylvania, western Maryland and western Virginia.

Earlier this year, after a competitive process, EPA selected the nonprofit American Rivers to administer the grant program. American Rivers is based in Washington, but has offices across the United States.

Lindloff explained that the the Mid-Atlantic Highlands Action Program and the Potomac Highlands Implementation Grant Program are different from the Chesapeake Bay Restoration program, although the programs overlap.

"This is a distinct program," she said. "EPA felt that because of the unique diversity of the Potomac Highlands, it deserved its own funding for river protection, land protection, floodplain protection, but the Potomac Highlands is linked to the Chesapeake Bay and the Potomac Highlands program will have benefits for the Chesapeake Bay."

- Staff writer John McVey can be reached at 304-263-3381, ext. 128, or at jmcvey@journal-news.net