The Environmental Professionals Organization of Connecticut (EPOC) is pleased to announce our environmental grant awards for 2015 as follows (total amount of all awards is $12,821):

• Connecticut River Coastal Conservation District
  
  The District promotes the sound use and management of natural resources through technical assistance and education in an area that includes 26 municipalities in the lower CT River Watershed and on Long Island Sound. EPOC’s funding will support laboratory costs of microbial source tracking in the Coginchaug River Watershed. The goals of this project are to further efforts to track down possible sources of persistently high levels of E. coli through microbial source tracking. Success will be measured through identification of host sources.
  

• Moodus Reservoir Preservation Group
  
  The Moodus Reservoir Preservation Group (MRPG) is a local non-profit community membership organization working to protect and improve the fragile ecosystem of Moodus Reservoir, a 566 acre man-made lake, located in the town of East Haddam, CT.  EPOC’s grant will support a pilot study to test the efficacy of contact herbicides in 25 heavily infested acres of Moodus Reservoir. The funds will be used to supplement additional funding obtained from grants, town funding and private contributions with goal of implementing a treatment program to address invasive aquatic plants that now cover 80% of the lake bottom of Moodus Reservoir.
  
  
• Scantic River Watershed Association
  
  The Scantic River Watershed Association (SRWA) is an all-volunteer, non-profit environmental organization formed in 1972. The SRWA is committed to protection of water quality and pollution control of the watershed, which encompasses around 90,000 acres in the towns of Hampden, MA, Stafford, Somers, Enfield, Ellington, East Windsor and South Windsor CT, where it drains into the Connecticut River. EPOC’s funding will support the purchase of HOBO temperature data loggers and E.coli testing supplies to monitor water quality parameters along the Scantic River. The association uses volunteers for monitoring and data is summarized annually and is used to monitor the health of the river.
  

• East Granby Land Trust
  
  The East Granby Land Trust (EGLT) is a private, non-governmental, non-profit organization incorporated in 1974 for the purpose of conserving open space in the town of East Granby.  EPOC’s grant will support the hiring of an arborist to remove large trees from Pond Meadow downed due to beaver dam and will include continuing pond maintenance with volunteer support. This past summer the pond was thickly covered with duckweed, a condition that has degraded water quality and the habitat it provides aquatic creatures like fish, turtles and amphibians.

On an annual basis, the EPOC Grant Program provides funding for local projects by non-profit and not-for-profit environmental advocacy groups, community based groups and environmental education organizations that benefit the environment . For further information, see our Grant Program page.