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EPA Selects Environmental Achievement Award Winners -- Two Awardees From Philadelphia Area

Release Date: 04/14/2011
Contact Information: Roy Seneca [email protected] (215)814-5567

PHILADELPHIA (April 14, 2011) -- The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s mid-Atlantic region announced 11 winners of its annual environmental achievement awards including two from Philadelphia Area – the Upper Merion School District in King of Prussia, Pa. and the Tookany/Tacony-Frankford Watershed Partnership in Philadelphia.

“People and organizations throughout our region are making great strides in environmental protection, and these awards recognize some of the shining stars who are doing more than their share to keep our planet healthy and inspiring others to do the same,” said Shawn M. Garvin, regional administrator for EPA’s mid-Atlantic region.

The Mid-Atlantic Environmental Achievement Awards recognize groups, agencies, individuals and businesses making extraordinary contributions to improving the environment in the mid-Atlantic region, which includes Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia and the District of Columbia. The winning entries were selected from among more than 30 nominations. The Philadelphia award winners include:

Upper Merion School District in King of Prussia, Pa. for being a 2010 ENERGY STAR leader and for reducing its energy consumption by more than 30 percent, an achievement reached by only about a dozen of the nation’s 15,000 school districts. All six of Upper Merion’s schools have earned the ENERGY STAR rating and several buildings have energy reductions near 50 percent. The district has also embarked on an aggressive recycling program that has resulted in about 50 percent of its solid waste being recycled instead of going to the landfill.
Tookany/Tacony-Frankford Watershed Partnership in Philadelphia for its energetic devotion to improve the health of the Tacony Creek and its boundaries. With a small staff, this non-profit organization along with volunteers has reached more than 8,700 watershed stewards face-to-face; taught more than 60 lessons to local school children; restored more than 20,000 square feet of developed land into native habitat; installed more than 230 rain barrels which keeps 16,500 gallons of rainwater out of overloaded
sewer systems each time it rains; and assisted its partners in restoring more than 13,000
feet of stream to native habitat.