PA Gets Money to Save The Bay

Can $5 Million save the Bay? The Allegheny Front, Pa. Chesapeake Bay cleanup efforts to get federal money 

More than $5 million is heading to Pennsylvania to help reduce pollution flowing to the Chesapeake Bay.

Pennsylvania has been lagging behind other Bay states in meeting cleanup goals set for 2025.

The Environmental Protection Agency recently reached a settlement with other Bay states, agreeing to step up oversight in the commonwealth.

The National Fish and Wildlife Foundation and EPA announced $9.6 million in grants to organizations in Bay states this week. The money is from the 2021 federal infrastructure law. Groups are matching the grants with their own money.
 
In Pennsylvania, more than $5.5 million will be split between Penn State University, the Stroud Water Research Center, the Alliance for the Chesapeake Bay, the Nature Conservancy, and the Tioga County Soil and Water Conservation District of New York.

Many of the projects focus on planting buffers to keep pollutants out of waterways and helping farmers adopt practices to keep sediment and nutrients on their fields, instead of running off into streams.

Penn State is getting $1 million to build partnerships in faith communities. It plans to help places of worship start green infrastructure projects and support members of the congregations to adopt farm conservation practices.

The Stroud Water Research Center plans to use a $1 million grant to grow forest buffers and train conservation workers in 8 counties across the state’s watershed.

The state Department of Environmental Protection also this week awarded $3.8 million in watershed restoration grants.

In a problem for which approximately $25 Billion has been spent to only minimal effect (nutrients are down, for sure, and seasonal hypoxia is may be somewhat reduced (I would argue it's within range of statistical uncertainty),  $5 million seems like a pittance, and the fact that it going to academic institutions rather than engineers suggests that to me that the money will get spent on studies (and overhead) rather than actual fixes.