Summary

Nonprofit and community organizations can apply for a King County Green Grant – worth up to $50,000 each – to support community-driven environmental projects in the Lower Duwamish Waterway. It’s part of the Green/Duwamish Watershed Strategy, a partnership created by Executive Constantine and Seattle Mayor Ed Murray to improve the human and environmental health of the region.

Story

King County Executive Dow Constantine today invited nonprofit and community organizations to apply for grants that support community-driven environmental projects in the Lower Duwamish Waterway and nearby neighborhoods.

The Green Grants program will provide a total of $100,980 in funding in 2015, with a maximum award of $50,000 per recipient. Examples of projects that qualify include installing rain gardens and permeable pavement to prevent polluted runoff water and sewage from entering local waterways, reduce the local impact of climate change, and reduce air pollution.

"People in the Duwamish Valley are ready to take grassroots action to enhance the quality of life in their neighborhoods,” said Executive Constantine. “Green Grants support community-driven projects and reinforce the progress we’re making to improve human and environmental health throughout the Lower Duwamish.”

The deadline to apply is 5 p.m. on May 15.

Previous Green Grants recipients have helped build community gardens, connected neighborhoods with climate-change planning experts, and assisted lower-income residents with installing rain gardens and cisterns.

King County’s Green Grants fit into Executive Constantine’s vision for a Green/Duwamish Watershed Strategy, which is being developed through a partnership with the City of Seattle, University of Washington’s Green Futures Lab and The Bullitt Foundation.

The strategy coordinates actions taken by local governments, businesses and nonprofits to improve a range of conditions in communities surrounding the Green and Duwamish rivers, which covers nearly 500-square-miles from the Cascades to Elliott Bay. Local governments, businesses, nonprofits, community groups, schools, tribes, and individuals are invited to submit application for Green Grants.

King County established the Lower Duwamish Green Grants program in 2010 to support environmental projects that align with its goals to control combined sewer overflows, improve air and water quality, curb new and ongoing sources of water pollution, and address impacts of climate change.

The Lower Duwamish Green Grants Program is administered by King County’s Wastewater Treatment Division.

Learn more about Green Grants.

FOR MORE INFORAMTION, CONTACT:

Annie Kolb-Nelson, Wastewater Treatment Division, 206-477-5373