DEP Accepting Applications for Environmental Education Grants

Deadline to Apply is Dec. 17

HARRISBURG — The Department of Environmental Protection is accepting applications from schools, universities, intermediate units, county conservation districts, environmental education centers, businesses and incorporated nonprofit organizations—including municipalities and municipal authorities—for the 2011 Environmental Education Program grants.

“This is a great opportunity to learn and understand the many different environmental issues that we face today,” said Jack Farster, DEP’s environmental education director. “These opportunities allow for all Pennsylvanians to educate themselves on the environmental issues to gain a better understanding of what is being done and what needs to be done to protect our natural resources.”

The grants provide funding to create or develop projects that support environmental education on timely and critically important topics, such as:

• Sustainable energy sources and technologies, including solar, wind, hydro, microhydro, biomass, geothermal, alternative transportation fuels and energy efficiency and conservation;
• Air quality, with a focus on improvements in transportation and electric generation to reduce ground level ozone or smog;
• Watersheds and wetlands, focusing on abating abandoned mine drainage, reducing non-point source pollution and enhancing water conservation;
• Chesapeake Bay watershed education with a focus on reducing nutrient and sediment loads, point and non-point source pollution reductions; and
• Carbon capture and storage, including terrestrial sequestration and climate change.

The deadline to apply is Dec. 17 and the maximum grants amount that will be awarded is $7,500.

In May, DEP awarded 95 grants totaling more than $382,000 to groups in support of environmental education programs across the state. Since the program’s inception, the department has awarded more than $7 million.

The program was established by the Environmental Education Act of 1993 and mandates that 5 percent of all pollution fines and penalties DEP collects annually be set aside for environmental education.

Applications are available online at www.depweb.state.pa.us by clicking on the “Environmental Education” link, then “Grants,” or by contacting DEP’s Environmental Education Grants Program, P.O. Box 2063, Harrisburg, PA 17105-2063.

For more information, visit www.depweb.state.pa.us or call 717-772-1828.