City of Tavares receives stormwater management improvement grant

The City of Tavares will receive $750,000 for stormwater management improvements and public education. The project is designed to reduce nutrients going into Lake Dora which flows the Upper Ocklawaha River. This project is part of the Upper Ocklawaha River restoration plan.

The funding comes from the Florida Department of Environmental Protection, which has been awarded more than $6 million in grant funding from the United States Environmental Protection Agency to assist local governments with the protection and restoration of Florida's waterbodies. The funding program, Section 319 Nonpoint Source Pollution Grants, provides money to implement projects and Best Management Practices that reduce runoff and restore Florida’s impaired waters.

These grants help fund important projects that specifically address nonpoint source pollution. Nonpoint source pollution comes from oil, pet waste, pesticide, herbicide, fertilizer, sediment and other contaminants that end up on the ground naturally or from human activity. Rainwater picks up these contaminants as it washes over yards, sidewalks, driveways, parking lots, roads and fields and deposits them into our surface waters as nonpoint source pollution.