Committee to Preserve Finger Lakes
Amount: $2500
Project Title: Keuka Outlet: Citizen Ash Landfill Assessment
Project Description: The Committee to Preserve Finger Lakes will use funding to provide laboratory testing for metals in stream monitoring locations above and below a coal ash landfill discharge into the Keuka Outlet, a stream that empties into Seneca Lake. This location is near an inactive coal burning power plant that the State is considering an application to reopen. This will provide baseline information to understand contamination, if any from the plant.
CROP-PLUS
Amount: $2000
Project Title: Coalition to Solarize Chautauqua County
Project Description: Funding from Freshwater Future will be used to build a local campaign to minimize the use of polluting coal and natural gas as an energy source from the local power company. CROP Plus aims to educate community members about pollution to our waters from fracking related activities and waste associated with natural gas extraction and the burning of coal. Through this education CROP Plus will facilitate citizen participation in the use of solar opportunities in communities serviced by the local power company. Funds will be used on materials for an outreach campaign.
Glencoe Community Foundation
Amount: $1000
Project Title: Promoting public access to Lake Michigan
Project Description: The Glencoe Community Foundation will bring together experts on the Public Trust doctrine of Illinois to answer questions about beach access to promote the beaches of Illinois on Lake Michigan.
Save Our Sky Blue Waters
Amount: $2100
Project Title: Administrative Challenge to the PolyMet USF Land Exchange Decision
Project Description: Save Our Sky Blue Waters will help cover legal/technical help regarding the USFS land exchange that is needed in order for PolyMet to open pit mine on what is now part of Superior National Forest.
Bad River Watershed Association
Amount: $2500
Project Title: Laying the Foundations for National Wild & Scenic River Designation
Project Description: The Bad River Watershed Association has an ultimate goal of having the Bad River and its larger tributaries designated as Nation Wild & Scenic Rivers. Funding will cover researching the federal protections associated with this designation, as well as how, and if, this designation has protected rivers from development activities, like mining. Where vulnerabilities would still exist, solutions will be identified.
Tides Canada Initiative Society
Amount: $3400
Project Title: Building public engagement for Lake Erie Alive
Project Description: Funding from Freshwater Future will help Canadian Freshwater Alliance, a project of Tides Canada to help build an engaged Lake Erie consituencey, and support efforts toward collective impact and coordinatied action to address the long-term health of Lake Erie.
WaterLegacy
Amount: $2500
Project Title: Protect Downstream Waters & Tribal Resources from Sulfide Mining
Project Description: WaterLegacy will use funds to protect Lake Superior Basin waters and downstream tribes from pollution that would result from the PolyMet project, Minnesota?s first proposed sulfide mine. They willl work with experts to complete the first-ever scientific application of U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) guidelines on specific conductivity to protect Northeastern Minnesota aquatic habitats threatened by sulfide mining and with an international expert to analyze PolyMet?s impacts on methylmercury, which bioaccumulates in fish and is toxic to the developing brains of fetuses, infants and children.
Flint River Corridor Alliance
Amount: $1500
Project Title: Gaining Public Support for the Flint River Restoration Plan and Chevy Commons
Project Description: Funding will help support the Flint River Corridor Alliance to update the Flint Riverfront Restoration Plan. Through community and civic involvement, their goals are to build momentum and create education on restoration projects so that the city of Flint understands its water resources and continues to improve it. Effort will be placed on creating an understanding that the Flint River is not toxic like their drinking water.