As a member of the Lancaster County Clean Water Consortium, Manheim Township is one of the six municipal recipients of a $150,000 federal grant to fund stormwater audits.
The local consortium is one of 14 local-government bodies that will receive money from the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation's Local Government Green Infrastructure Initiative.
The project will fund a stormwater audit for six Lancaster County municipalities. Beginning this fall, the audit process involves examining how each community is currently spending public funds to reduce stormwater runoff and recommending improvements that will maximize the effective use of public money. The audits will be conducted by the staff from the Environmental Finance Center at the University of Maryland.
Stormwater runoff from certain agriculture activities, parking lots and roads contributes to Chesapeake Bay pollution. The Chesapeake Bay Program has been working for decades to keep pollution out of the bay watershed.
The six municipalities in our area to be audited are:
• East Cocalico Township
• Lititz
• Manheim Township
• Mount Joy
• Warwick Township
• West Lampeter Township
The Environmental Finance Center at the University of Maryland is one of 10 centers nationwide.