Home > News Bytes > DRBC Staff Helps Celebrate Water Quality Improvement Projects in the Schuylkill River Watershed
DRBC Staff Helps Celebrate Water Quality Improvement Projects in the Schuylkill River Watershed
DRBC staff at the Last Chance Angus Farm, a SRRF grant recipient. Photo by the DRBC.
DRBC staff at the Last Chance Angus Farm, a SRRF
grant recipient. Photo by the DRBC.

The Schuylkill River Watershed is getting a little cleaner, thanks to the recent round of grant funding from the Schuylkill River Restoration Fund (SRRF). DRBC Director of External Affairs and Communications Elizabeth Brown, Manager of Water Resource Planning Chad Pindar and Sr. Water Resource Engineer Michael Thompson participated in the announcement ceremony, held recently at Ontelaunee Park, New Tripoli, Pa.

This year, nearly $655,000 in grant money was awarded to eight projects that will address habitat and stream restoration, agricultural pollution and stormwater management. 

   •  View SRG's News Release announcing the 2026 funded projects (PDF; September 9, 2026)

DRBC's Thompson gave remarks at the awards ceremony, along with Schuylkill River Greenways (SRG) Deputy Director Tim Fenchel, Philadelphia Water Department Commissioner Ben Jewell and other SRRF partners. The SRG oversees/manages the SRRF.

The day also featured a bus tour to two local project sites that were previous SRRF awardees: the Breinig Property, where the Natural Lands Trust recently acquired 11.6 acres on the Kittatinny Ridge, and Last Chance Angus Farm, where the farm owners and Lehigh County Conservation District discussed restoration work. The visits gave participants an opportunity to see how grant dollars translate into improvements on the ground, in these cases, to preserve vital landscapes and reduce polluted farm runoff from entering a local stream.

The SRRF is a great example of how partnering works to accomplish great things, bringing together government agencies, private industries, non-profit organizations, local businesses and local community members to achieve positive environmental results for the Schuylkill River Watershed.

The SRRF resulted from a 2004 DRBC docket approval to Exelon (now Constellation) for its Limerick Generating Station. There was then - and still is today - a shared desire to assist the restoration of the Schuylkill River Watershed by providing large grants for on-the-ground improvements, focusing on projects that address stormwater runoff, agricultural pollution and drainage from abandoned mines. The DRBC approves the projects that are selected for grants using the Constellation funds and is one of several entities that sit on an advisory committee that chooses which projects get awarded annually.

Since being established in 2006, the SRRF has collected over $6 million for 127 projects - and leveraged another $15 million in investments - for projects that protect and restore the Schuylkill River.


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DRBC's Michael Thompson, P.E., provides remarks at the awards ceremony, highlighting DRBC's role and the success of the SRRF. Photo by the DRBC. DRBC's partners from the Partnership for the Delaware Estuary and the Philadelphia Water Department are all smiles at the awards ceremony. Photo by the DRBC. At Last Chance Angus Farm, cows eat in a new, covered heavy use area that reduces runoff and includes 3 months of dry manure storage capacity. Photo by the DRBC. At Last Chance Angus Farm, Ned the guard llama is about to traverse an improved cattle crossing over an unnamed tributary of the Ontelaunee Creek, a Schuylkill River tributary. Photo by the DRBC.
 The view from the Breinig Property, where recently aquired land on Kittatinny Ridge, part of the Maiden Creek Watershed, will help protect this globally important bird area. Photo by the DRBC.
DRBC's Michael Thompson, P.E., provides remarks at the awards ceremony, highlighting DRBC's role and the success of the SRRF. Photo by the DRBC.

DRBC's partners from the Partnership for the Delaware Estuary and the Philadelphia Water Department are all smiles at the awards ceremony. Photo by the DRBC.

 At Last Chance Angus Farm, cows eat in a new, covered heavy use area that reduces runoff and includes 3 months of dry manure storage capacity. Photo by the DRBC. At Last Chance Angus Farm, Ned the guard llama is about to traverse an improved cattle crossing over an unnamed tributary of the Ontelaunee Creek, a Schuylkill River tributary. Photo by the DRBC. The view from the Breinig Property, where recently acquired land on Kittatinny Ridge, part of the Maiden Creek Watershed, will help protect this globally important bird area. Photo by the DRBC.