SHAMOKIN - Members of the Anthracite Outdoor Adventure Area (AOAA) Authority are seeking grant funding generated from the state's impact fees on natural gas drilling.
Authority members voted Monday during a special meeting to apply for a pair of grants from the Greenways, Trails and Recreation Program - more than $300,000 to improve the water in Carbon Run and upward of $20,000 for trail design.
The headwaters of Carbon Run are on AOAA land, said Jim Backes, authority chairman. Vice chairman Pat Mack said grant funding would be used to install catch basins and build berms and swales toward preventing sediment from building up in the waterway.
Both noted that the water leaves AOAA land and enters mines, where it is contaminated before reaching the city and the confluence with Shamokin Creek. But, they said, it's a start.
"It's part of a larger effort of the conservation of natural resources on the property," Backes said.
The application is a joint effort by the authority, Northumberland County Planning Department and Northumberland County Conservation District, Mack said. He wasn't aware of whether or not the authority would be required to match any of the grant funding with its own funding or in-kind with materials or labor.
Deadline to apply to the Commonwealth Financing Authority is July 31, and grants will be awarded Nov. 13.
The CFA's funding comes from the Marcellus Legacy Fund, a result of Act 13 of 2012.
In other business, a moment of silence was held at the start of Monday's meeting in memory of John Nemeth, 49, of Gordon, who was killed Sunday in an all-terrain vehicle crash on Burnside Mountain.
Authority members voted to seek an insurance quote from Markel Insurance Co.