The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection recently announced grants exceeding $12 million to support watershed restoration projects across the Commonwealth.
The Wilkinsburg-based organization UpstreamPgh will receive two of those grants: $390,000 to implement a stormwater management project in Wilkinsburg, and $185,450 to assess and create management plans for the Nine Mile Run watershed, which includes Pittsburgh and the boroughs of Edgewood, Swissvale, and Wilkinsburg.
"We are immensely thankful to the Department of Environmental Protection for their commitment to environmental stewardship,” said UpstreamPgh Executive Director Mike Hiller in a news release.
“These grants will empower local communities and fund crucial projects that will restore the Nine Mile Run watershed and address environmental injustices through holistic watershed restoration,” he said.
The larger grant funds the second phase of a stormwater management project surrounding a municipally owned parking lot at 713 South Ave. in Wilkinsburg — “one of the largest square-footage impervious surface areas contributing to high-volume, polluted stormwater runoff in the Nine Mile Run Watershed,” according to UpstreamPgh.
The second, smaller grant will create seven subwatershed system plans — five of which are for communities coping with environmental challenges. UpstreamPgh says the plans will be designed to address climate change as well as legacy issues creating the environmental challenges.
The grant funding comes through DEP’s Growing Greener Plus Program — supported by the Environmental Stewardship Fund, which receives money from landfill tipping fees.
