MassDEP awards $3.1M to reduce pollutants entering waterbodies

The Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection is awarding $3.1 million in grants to support projects that prevent, control or reduce nonpoint-source pollution.

Nonpoint-source pollution occurs when rainfall or melting snow picks up and carries natural and human-made pollutants — such as fertilizers, herbicides, construction sediment, nutrients and bacteria from animal waste — and eventually deposits the pollutants into lakes, rivers, wetlands, coastal waters, and ground waters.

These grants will help municipalities, tribal nations, regional planning agencies, and public and private entities address NPS pollution.

“As our climate continues to change and rainfall increases, these types of projects help us maintain healthy lakes, rivers and streams,” said MassDEP Commissioner Bonnie Heiple in a prepared statement on May 27. “It’s important that we implement strategies to eliminate the pollutants at the source, restore impaired waters, and provide equitable access to clean and safe water.”

Grants awards
• Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe, $700,000: The tribe and the town of Mashpee have collaborated to take a strategic, watershed-based approach, using a combination of structural and non-structural best management practices to improve water quality in Santuit Pond.

• Mystic River Watershed Association, $869,640: This project will take a strategic, watershed-based approach to construct a total of 65 infiltration trenches in six municipalities in the Mystic River watershed, offering cost-effective phosphorus reduction in a highly urbanized setting.

• Town of Monson, $203,965: This project will improve water quality and ecological conditions for Chicopee Brook by installing stormwater best management practices and supporting improved landscape management.

• Massachusetts Alternative Septic System Test Center, Barnstable County Department of Health and Environment, $416,997: This project will install 25 urine diversion systems in nitrogen-impaired watersheds.

• Massachusetts Association of Conservation Districts, $455,125: Building on a recently completed federally funded project, the MACD will engage farmers in the implementation of best management practices to reduce contaminant runoff to impaired waterbodies in western Massachusetts.

• City of Pittsfield, $151,944: This project will support the implementation of the West Branch Housatonic River Watershed-Based Plan.

• Berkshire Regional Planning Commission, $100,000: The planning commission will conduct regional NPS implementation project development via a Regional NPS Coordinator Program for Berkshire County.

• Southeastern Regional Planning and Economic Development District, $100,000: This project will facilitate regional watershed planning efforts to address nitrogen and other sources of NPS pollution that impact Buzzards Bay watershed communities.

• Martha’s Vineyard Commission, $100,000: This project will establish an island-wide communications network of local and regional water resource stakeholders, establish a regional NPS coordinator to participate in ongoing watershed-based planning, and establish an education and outreach program.

• Geosyntec Consultants Inc., $22,252: This project will build on the success of the Massachusetts Watershed-Based Plan web-based tool.

For more information, visit Section 319 Nonpoint Source Competitive Grants Program.