With additional funds from The Philadelphia Water Department, that amount in 2024 will top a half a million dollars. Marc Cammarata, Deputy Water Commissioner, Planning for PWD and a board member at Schuylkill River Greenways made the announcement at the 2023 Restoration Fund site tour.
“The Restoration Fund makes it possible for the city of Philadelphia to support projects outside the city. Beginning in 2024, The Philadelphia Water Department is going to be changing its annual contribution to the Restoration Fund from $100,000 per year to $250,000 a year,” Cammarata shared. “This increase in funding will really allow the WD to do more outside the city to protect our resources in the Schuylkill watershed and to continue to enhance these incredible partnerships and project opportunities that are afforded to us through the Restoration Fund.”
Constellation’s Limerick Generating Station, The Partnership for the Delaware Estuary, and Aqua, PA join the Philadelphia Water Department to fund the grants each year.
The Schuylkill River Restoration Fund provides grants to government agencies and non-profit organizations for projects that improve the quality of water in the watershed. The grants focus on three major sources of pollution: stormwater run-off, agricultural pollution and abandoned mine drainage.
Created through a unique public/private partnership between Constellation, the Delaware River Basin Commission and the Schuylkill River Greenways National Heritage Area, The Restoration fund has distributed more than $5 million–and leveraged another $5 million in the last 18 years for projects that protect and restore the Schuylkill River. Yearly grant awards total over $300,000.
More information, including application materials, for the Restoration Fund can be found on the Schuylkill River Greenways website: https://schuylkillriver.org/conservation/the-restoration-fund/