PITTSBURGH – The Department of Environmental Protection announced a new grant program to provide communities with the tools and resources they need to restore illegal dump sites and it awarded $1 million to PA CleanWays to continue its important mission to cleanup and remediate illegal dump sites in communities throughout the commonwealth.
“Illegal dumping is not just an environmental crime, it is a health and safety issue that plagues our neighborhoods and affects the quality of life of our residents,” said DEP Deputy Secretary Thomas Fidler while standing at the site of an illegal dump in the Hazelwood neighborhood of Pittsburgh. “The new Illegal Dump Cleanup Grant program will help remove the blight of illegal dumps and prevent future dumping. Working together with partners in our communities, we can break the cycle of dumping and raise civic pride.”
Pennsylvania will invest $500,000 in the Illegal Dump Cleanup Grant program for communities and nonprofit groups. The program will focus on the cleanup of illegal dumps; site restoration and beautification; surveillance of existing dump sites and remediated sites; enforcement of littering and illegal dumping ordinances; and public awareness and education to inform local citizens about illegal dumping, littering and clean-up activities.
Grants of up to $25,000 will be awarded with a match of at least 50 percent of the grant amount by the grantee.
The grants are available on a competitive basis to any existing local government or incorporated nonprofit organization currently located in Pennsylvania. An applicant cannot, in any way, be responsible for any illegal dump located in Pennsylvania.
Fidler also announced the $1 million grant to PA Cleanways to continue its programs to identify and eliminate illegal dumps in the state, prevent litter and support community-based efforts to restore and preserve the scenic beauty of the commonwealth.
“PA CleanWays has shown a strong commitment to the elimination of illegal dumps and littering in Pennsylvania,” Fidler said. “In the past three years alone, PA CleanWays’ volunteers have cleaned up 268 sites, hauling out 2,244 tons of trash, 288 tons of scrap and thousands of tires. PA CleanWays also provides important educational resources to help communities raise awareness on the hazards of illegal dumping and on affordable disposal and recycling alternatives.”
With DEP financial support, PA Clean Ways initiated an effort in 2005 to identify illegal dumps within each county across the commonwealth. The Illegal Dump Survey Program serves to educate state, county and local officials about the problem of illegal dumping so constituents at all levels can begin to address the problem through cleanups, municipal waste collections, and recycling programs. To date, these surveys have identified 2,600 dump sites with approximately 11,000 tons of illegally disposed trash on the 24 counties that have completed surveys. The grant award announced today will provide funding for 16 more counties to be completed by 2010, with an overall goal to have the entire commonwealth surveyed by 2012.
Grant applications are available online, keyword: Illegal dumping, or by calling DEP’s Bureau of Waste Management at 717-787-7381.
For more information about PA CleanWays, visit its Web site.