News Update
Tampa Bay Water announces grants to protect region’s drinking water sources
Staff report
Enviro-Net
Tampa Bay Water awarded nearly $30,000 in source water protection mini-grants to local organizations at its February board meeting to help Tampa Bay area non-profits, schools and community groups protect the aquifer, rivers and bay that the region uses for its drinking water.
Receiving the mini-grants for 2019 are Keep Tampa Bay Beautiful, Keep Pinellas Beautiful, the Pasco Education Foundation and Anthony Leotta, a teacher at Sickles High School.
For the past 10 years, TBW has provided grants that support organizations and groups that help people in the area get involved in protecting the sources of their drinking water, according to General Manager Matt Jordan.
This year, Tampa Bay Water received six mini-grant applications and was able to fully fund four of the applications.
Keep Tampa Bay Beautiful will receive $10,000 to support education initiatives and presentations to school groups and community groups through its Environmental Education Program. The program teaches students the importance of putting waste in its place and how their actions can directly affect the Tampa Bay watershed.
Keep Pinellas Beautiful will receive $10,000 to increase its K-12 educational curriculum on watershed health, water quality, source water health and habitat improvement. It also will expand its Annual Student Summer Workshops to include watershed stewardship education across Pinellas County and grow its Youth Advisory Council.
Pasco Education Foundation will receive $5,000 to help launch Wendell Krinn Technical High School’s aquaponics farming system. The project will bring together a multidisciplinary team of students to build, operate and maintain a system that uses 90 percent less water than traditional farming and will eliminate agricultural runoff.
Anthony Leotta, a teacher at Sickles High School, will receive $2,000 to relocate and expand the school’s hydroponics garden to make it more accessible as a teaching tool and increase its yield while reducing water consumption.
Since 2008, Tampa Bay Water has invested approximately $200,000 in its mini-grant program to help community-based efforts that protect the region’s drinking water resources.