EPA awards $3.2 million for Tennessee streams
The Tennessee Department of Agriculture can use the annual grant from the Nonpoint Source Management Program to provide technical and financial assistance to local governments, educational programs and pollution monitoring.
“The goals of these programs are to restore the uses of streams to fishable, swimmable waters,” said John McClurkan, the department’s water resources administrator.
State and local governments will add $5.6 million in matching funds, he said.
Pollution runoff is the largest cause of waterway contamination in the United States, according to the EPA. Fertilizers, herbicides, insecticides, oil, toxic chemicals, sediment and bacteria from animal wastes all get swept by rainfall into rivers and streams, where they mix with effluents from faulty septic systems.
“The watershed restoration piece is really the bread and butter of our program,” McClurkan said.
Among the efforts supported by the grant is Tennessee Growth Readiness, a joint project of the Tennessee Valley Authority and the Department of Agriculture to inform local officials about the impact of development on water quality.