California American Water is accepting applications for its 2009 Environmental Grant Program. The company will award several grants for a combined total of $10,000 to innovative community-based environmental projects that improve, restore or protect watersheds and drinking water supplies within the state.

A wide variety of conservation projects are eligible for funding, such as watershed cleanups, reforestation efforts, biodiversity projects, streamside buffer restoration projects, wellhead protection initiatives and hazardous waste collection efforts.

To qualify, a proposed project must be:

—  Located within California American Water’s service area;
—  Completed between June 1, 2009 and December 1, 2009; and

—  A new or innovative community initiative or serve as a significant
expansion to an existing program.

Projects will be judged based on criteria that include clarity of project goals and projected impact, strength of collaboration with other community and/or municipal organizations and evidence that the project will provide sustainable environmental results after California American Water’s funding ends.

In 2008, the program supported the Sacramento River Watershed Program and the Community Clean Water Institute. The $5,000 grant awarded to the Sacramento River Watershed Program was used to underwrite two workshops focused on water quality issues and the development of a sustainable regional water quality monitoring program. The same amount was awarded to the Community Clean Water institute to perform quality and in-stream flow monitoring at five locations of the Mark West Creek watershed in the Larkfield and Wikiup areas of Sonoma County.

Grant information and application forms can be found online at the California American Water Web Site.

Applications must be postmarked by May 18, 2009, and mailed to:

California American Water
4701 Beloit Drive
Sacramento, CA 95838
Attn: Debra Vernon and Chris Albert

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Author: Tracey de Morsella (323 Articles)

Tracey de Morsella started her career working as an editor for US Technology Magazine. She used that experience to launch Delaware Valley Network, a publication for professionals in the Greater Philadelphia area. Years later, she used the contacts and resources she acquired to work in executive search specializing in technical and diversity recruitment. She has conducted recruitment training seminars for Wachovia Bank, the Department of Interior and the US Postal Service. During this time, she also created a diversity portal called The Multicultural Advantage and published the Diversity Recruitment Advertising Toolkit, a directory of recruiting resources for human resources professionals. Her career and recruitment articles have appeared in numerous publications and web portals including Woman Engineer Magazine, Monster.com, About.com Job Search Channel, Workplace Diversity Magazine, Society for Human Resource Management web site, NSBE Engineering Magazine, HR.com, and Human Resource Consultants Association Newsletter. Her work with technology professionals drew her to pursuing training and work in web development, which led to a stint at Merrill Lynch as an Intranet Manager. In March, she decided to combine her technical and career management expertise with her passion for the environment, and with her husband, launched The Green Economy Post, a blog providing green career information and covering the impact of the environment, sustainable building, cleantech and renewable energy on the US economy. Her sustainability articles have appeared on Industrial Maintenance & Plant Operation, Chem.Info,FastCompany and CleanTechies.