Skip to content
Health
Link copied to clipboard

Tookany partnership, UM school district get EPA kudos

EPA announces environmental achievement awards

The Tookany/Tacony-Frankford Watershed Partnership in Philadelphia has restored more than 13,000 feet of the Tacony Creek to native habitat.

With just a small staff, the nonprofit has installed rain barrels, taught children and trained watershed stewards.

For that -- and more -- the partnership recently was named one of 11 regional winners of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's environmental achievement awards.

Another winner from the area is the Upper Merion School District 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, according to the EPA. 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.

For a full list of the winners, click here.