Applications are now being accepted for Tennessee American Water’s 2020 Environmental Grant Program. The program supports innovative, community-based environmental projects that improve, restore or protect watersheds and water sources through partnerships. Diverse activities like watershed cleanups, water quality monitoring, biodiversity projects, surface or groundwater protection education, wellhead protection initiatives and hazardous waste collection efforts are examples of projects supported through this grant program.
The environmental grant program is competitive-based and last year Tennessee American Water awarded over $10,000 in total grant funding between five organizations.
"At Tennessee American Water we are dedicated to ensuring we provide our customers with safe and clean water,” said Kitty Vaughn, senior supervisor Water Quality & Environmental Compliance. “We also educate our customers on how they can be great environmental stewards in this process.”
In 2019, Tennessee American Water issued grants for projects that impacted a number of local waterways such as: the Chattanooga Creek, Chickamauga Creek, Spring Creek and Mountain Creek. Many of the projects involved youth engagement.
“We believe that exposing young people to the roles they can play in protecting our most precious resource of water is important.” said Ms. Vaughn. “We are pleased that our grant program has impacted so many waterways as well as volunteers.”
To qualify, proposed projects must demonstrate:
Innovation and strength of project design.
Nature and strength of collaboration with other community and/or municipal organizations.
Likelihood of project’s sustainability after the American Water funding ends.
Evidence of community engagement.
Plan for assessing the project’s impact and capacity to measure project outcomes.
Assessment of budget as reasonable and cost-efficient.
Maximum grant amount: $3,500
The grant application, details about the grant requirements, and examples of projects can be found at https://amwater.com/tnaw/news-community/environmental-grant-program. Applications must be received or post-marked by Tuesday, March 31.