NMI Receives $200,000 in Economic Recovery Funds to Improve Water Quality, Create Jobs

Washington, D.C. — U.S. Congressman Gregorio Kilili Camacho Sablan announced today that the Environmental Protection Agency has awarded another $200,000 to the Commonwealth under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. The money is a Water Quality Management Planning (WQMP) grant, designed to prevent water pollution.

“As most of the Recovery Act money, today’s grant puts more dollars into our local economy and puts people to work,” said Sablan. “And the money also addresses a larger community need, in this case the need to protect human health and the environment.”

The WQMP grant awarded to the Northern Mariana Islands can be used to  support a broad range of activities, such as setting standards, monitoring the quality of the water, developing plans to restore polluted waters, and identifying ways to protect healthy waters from becoming polluted.

EPA also encourages the use of the grants for more innovative planning activities like developing plans to adapt to climate change, analyzing trends in water availability and use, and creating low-impact development programs.

Congress enacted the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 in February. To date the Northern Mariana Islands has received notice of the availability of more than $113 million, largely through automatic formula distributions built into the law.

Americans can track the flow of ARRA money at the official website, Recovery. gov.