The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency administrator handed out $1.6 million to 59 community organizations in Maryland and four other states yesterday to promote the Chesapeake Bay cleanup.
Christine Todd Whitman visited the EPA's bay program office in Annapolis to announce the grants, none larger than $50,000, aimed at promoting "partnerships" between the federal government and local organizations to attack pollution.
"The best advocates for these waters are those who enjoy them," Whitman said. "That's why we're helping those groups find a solution to their problems."
Groups in New York, Pennsylvania, Delaware and Virginia also received grants.
The Chesapeake Bay Foundation received $30,000 for a bay grass planting and oyster restoration project on the Patuxent River, and the Gwynns Falls Watershed Association got $25,000 for its StreamWatch programs.
Among the other grants were $9,700 to develop wetlands along a New York tributary of the Susquehanna River, and $30,000 to plant trees and vegetation along the Elizabeth River in Norfolk, Va. Groups receiving the grants use them to help raise funds from other private and public sources.
The money "comes from big government to act locally," said Sen. Barbara A. Mikulski, a Maryland Democrat, who was on hand for the announcement.
The grants program, created in 1998 with the help of Maryland Democratic Sen. Paul S. Sarbanes, has grown from $750,000 that year to its current level. The Senate might increase the expenditure next year to $1.75 million.
