Delaware receives funding for Water quality testing

SUSSEX COUNTY, Del.- Funding for water quality testing is getting a boost.

Delaware is receiving $595,000 to help aid water quality testing, preserve wetlands and more.

$200,000 of that money will fund water treatment facilities in low income communities by the water. $172,000 will also go towards preserving 25 acres of wetlands in the Great Cypress Swamp. 

$223,000 will go towards the Beaches Environmental Assessment and Coastal Health (BEACH) Act grant, which works to test water quality up and down our coast. 

Delaware is the lowest lying-state in the country. Environmentalists at an event in Cape Henlopen State Park the morning of June 26 said that sea level rise and global warming pose a threat to the First State.

According to the Christophe Tulou, the executive director for the Center For The Inland Bays, the rising water is washing materials from the street into the oceans and waterways.

"What we're getting is a lot of water washing off of streets and roads and sidewalks, and it's carrying that grease, the dirt, the animal waste, everything into our waters," he said.

The bays received a "D" grade for water quality in the Center For The Inland Bays State of the Bays report.

DNREC is handling the funds from this grant.