In Maryland, fourteen projects will receive grants from the Chesapeake and Atlantic Coastal Bays Trust Fund. Selected by the Bay Cabinet and administered by the Maryland Department of Natural Resources (DNR), these projects are the most cost-effective and efficient initiatives to address polluted runoff and sediment in targeted areas of the state.
The trust fund identifies each region’s most serious pollution sources that threaten the bay, and directs funds to projects that will result in the greatest reduction for the investment. Rather than dictating practices to be implemented, the trust fund encourages applicants to find fresh approaches to problems.
Maryland received nearly $50 million in requests for the $9.8 million available in fiscal year 2016. Determined by an inter-agency review panel, the Scientific Advisory Panel and the Bay Cabinet, the winning proposals showed the greatest potential to provide long-term nutrient and sediment reduction in targeted areas of the state and were positioned to begin work upon grant acceptance.
Projects in Baltimore, Caroline, Carroll, Cecil, Frederick, Harford, Howard, Kent, Montgomery, Prince George’s, and Talbot counties and Baltimore City, will all receive funding. Work includes innovative stormwater management and agricultural best management practices; enhancing the urban tree canopy; stream and wetland restoration; among others.
The trust fund’s recently released Annual Work and Expenditure Plan breaks down planned spending for fiscal year 2016, with $9.8 million to support 14 cost-effective non-point source pollution reduction projects – $11.25 million to fund placement of agriculture cover crops, and the remaining to supporting, technical assistance for nutrient and sediment reduction, technology research and development, and other non-point source pollution-reduction projects.
All of the awarded projects make progress towards reducing the Chesapeake Bay Total Maximum Daily Load, which supports the goals of the new Chesapeake Bay Watershed Agreement.
To learn more, visit dnr.maryland.gov/trustfund.
source: Maryland Department of Natural Resources
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