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Kentucky Receives More Than $3 Million to Protect Watersheds

Release Date: 12/14/2005
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The Kentucky Environmental and Public Protection Cabinet has been awarded $3,433,600 in nonpoint source (NPS) pollution grant funds by EPA for continued implementation of the Kentucky NPS Pollution Control Program. This Clean Water Act grant supports efforts to keep Kentucky 's waterways safe for drinking, wildlife support, and recreation, and helps correct existing water quality problems. Kentucky will contribute to the federal grant with matching funds of $2,289,067, bringing the total value of Kentucky 's (NPS) Program support for this year to $5,722,667.

This NPS pollution grant will be used to conduct several state-lead assessment and monitoring projects, and fund seven competitively selected, watershed-based projects. The competitively selected project grants issued to outside entities include: a riparian restoration project in the Buck Creek watershed; a large-scale watershed restoration project in the Daniel Boone National Forest; a demonstration project showing proper techniques and practices to alleviate NPS pollution in the City of Georgetown; development of a watershed-based management plan for Bacon Creek in Hart County; a sinkhole education and restoration project in the Pleasant Grove Creek sub-watershed; an acid mine drainage abatement project in Pleasant Run; and a straight-pipe abatement and education project in the Eagle Creek watershed.

EPA and state water quality agencies recognize that river and stream water quality impairment is not only caused by traditionally regulated entities and industries. Numerous contaminants such as excess oil, grease, fertilizer, and soil are gathered by rainwater and snow-melt and deposited into nearby waterways. This type of pollution is known as nonpoint source pollution, because it does not originate from any single, identifiable source. EPA's NPS and Wetlands Planning Section assists states, tribes, and interstate agencies in addressing and eliminating NPS pollution through administration and oversight of the Clean Water Act.

Since the establishment of the Nonpoint Source Management Program under the Clean Water Act in 1987, EPA has provided more than $1.6 billion in federal funding alone to state, territory, and tribal partners, to protect and restore our nation's waters. For more information about efforts to control NPS pollution in Kentucky and throughout the Southeast, please visit: https://www.epa.gov/region4/water/nps/ .