The Brandywine Conservancy has been awarded a $93,000 grant to assist 20 municipalities in southern Chester County with achieving water quality goals. 

The grant, obtained by the Conservancy through the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (NFWF), will enable us to work with public officials and private landowners to implement pollution reduction.

The funding was awarded through the Chesapeake Bay Stewardship Fund via the Small Watershed Grants (SWG) Program which is administered by NFWF.  The SWG program provides grants to organizations and governments working on a local level to implement projects that improve small watersheds in the Chesapeake Bay basin, while building citizen-based resource stewardship.  This program is funded by EPA's Chesapeake Bay Program Office, as well as the US Forest Service, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and the D.C. Department of the Environment.

In 2010, the Environmental Protection Agency established Total Maximum Daily Loads (TMDLs) for the Chesapeake Bay watershed.  [A TMDL is a calculation of the maximum amount of a pollutant that a waterbody can receive and still meet water quality standards, and an allocation of that load among the various sources of that pollutant.]  Over 1,100 municipalities were affected by the TMDLs, including many in Pennsylvania.

We are thrilled to receive this grant and look forward to partnering with the Chester County Conservation District, Chester County Water Resources Authority, Chesapeake Bay Foundation, and local watershed organizations on this very important work.