- Program Environment
- Program Area Addressing the Freshwater Challenge
- Grant Amount $510,000
- Grant Period January 1, 2003–December 31, 2004
- Location Washington, DC, United States
- Geographic Focus Alabama, Louisiana, Michigan, Mississippi, New York, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Wisconsin
About this grant
The Running Rivers Campaign was formed to address the hydropower dam relicensing process across the United States. In the next decade, 243 licenses will be up for review, including 90 in the Great Lakes and Southeast. The project involves a consortium of national, regional and local environmental and recreational groups from across the country working to protect and restore rivers and achieve greater public involvement in the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission relicensing process.Multiyear funding will support activities that include participating in efforts to implement the parameters of new licenses in the Great Lakes; taking part in the relicensing process of 26 dams in the Great Lakes basin; assisting with relicensing projects in the Southeast; encouraging capacity-building among local and state level organizations addressing hydropower relicensing; promoting enhanced public participation procedures, science-based decisionmaking processes and interagency cooperation mechanisms; and educating the public and policymakers about the importance of river restoration.Recent accomplishments included reaching settlements that improve river flows, enhance fish passages and protect threatened aquatic species; providing support to 15 state and local level organizations in the Great Lakes and Southeast; working to develop a more efficient and effective relicensing process; and distributing a media briefing kit regarding the benefits of the relicensing process.