HARRISBURG A study of the Quakake Tunnel in Weatherly Borough is one of 109 watershed protection projects that will receive more than $23.2 million from the Department of Environmental Protection as part of the Growing Greener program, according to Rep. Doyle Heffley, R-Carbon, and Sen. John Yudichak, Luzerne/Carbon. Gov. Tom Corbett announced the grants on Tuesday.

"The governor's announcement is welcome news to Carbon County in our continuing effort to protect and improve water quality," Heffley said. "Carbon County's rich supply of streams and waterways contributes greatly to our economy and growing tourism industry. This grant will help to ensure that our streams are sustainable as a home to wildlife and accessible to residents."Pennsylvania's Growing Greener Program invests in projects that protect watersheds and restore waterways that already impaired. This year the program is providing a $7,000 grant to Weatherly Borough to fund the purchase and installation of continuous flow measurement equipment at the Quakake Tunnel to study ways to reduce acid mine drainage."The Growing Greener program is a very critical annual investment made by the state that supports our environmental efforts and enhances the quality of our water," Yudichak said. "The grant awarded to Weatherly will begin the important process of developing a watershed restoration plan and improving the water at surrounding streams."The Quakake Tunnel is a nearly 4,000-foot-long tunnel that drains parts of several coal workings and is a major contributor of acid mine drainage, or the outflow of acidic water into local streams and water supplies."Weatherly Borough is very excited about obtaining this $7,000 grant from DEP. Although it is a small grant in dollars, it will have a huge impact on the work we are doing to clean up the Hazle Creek and the Quakake Creek," Weatherly borough manager Harold Pudliner said. "These funds will allow us to purchase the monitoring equipment needed to obtain the data required for the development of a restoration plan for the Quakake Creek."Weatherly Borough, in partnership with Trout Unlimited, DEP, the Eastern Pennsylvania Coalition for Abandoned Mine Reclamation and others, have been working toward developing a plan to address the acid mine drainage affecting Hazle Creek, Quakake Creek and Black Creek. The proposed plan will address removing the watershed from the priority watershed list, return the streams to cold water fisheries and reduce AMD loadings downstream in the Lehigh River.