The Clean Water for Delaware Act created a Clean Water Trust Fund to address Delaware’s most urgent clean water and waterway projects. With an initial $50 million in funding, the Fund will support endeavors such as improving flood resiliency in flood-prone communities, repairing failing sewer pipes and septic systems, removing decades-old pollution from our waterways, and providing low-interest loans and grants for underserved communities.

CDRW members will use our collective voice to ensure that Clean Water Trust Fund investments are spent equitably, including upgrading water systems in several low-income communities, and invested in projects that will increase the watershed’s resiliency, advocate for transparency in annual planning and reporting, and work with partners in DE on identifying how to take advantage of federal infrastructure dollars.

The Coalition is dedicated to improving upon our efforts in advancing Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Justice within our structure, partnerships, internal and programmatic processes, and policy goals to ensure that all communities share equitably in the benefits of clean water.

Within the state of Delaware, the Coalition is committed to identifying and building relationships with local environmental justice-focused groups, leveraging Coalition resources for Delaware members and conservation partners, and activating Delaware members in advocacy around a Cumulative Impacts bill to address the impacts of pollution on overburdened communities.  The bill is now working its way through the state legislature.

CDRW members celebrated the long-awaited opening of South Wilmington Wetlands Park in fall of 2022. The park provides environmental education and recreation in an underserved community, while alleviating chronic flooding of streets and homes from large storms.

Building on the success of the 2021 law which expanded a plastic bag ban to all stores (regardless of size) and banned ‘reusable’ bags thinner than 10 millimeters, CDRW members saw victory again with the passage of a law in 2023 to ban single-use polystyrene products, such as insulated cups and take out containers in food service establishments.  The law will go into effect in 2025.

The Coalition is working to amplify and coordinate efforts for Wild and Scenic Rivers Partnership funding. Partnership Wild and Scenic Rivers are managed and driven locally, involving collaborative planning between local, state, and regional stakeholders and the National Park Service (NPS). Partnership Rivers allow for further protection of river miles that are not necessarily within a National Parks System, including rivers on local, state, private and tribal lands.

The Coalition is working to engage congressional sponsors and local stakeholders to amplify current Wild and Scenic Rivers, and to conduct outreach that will result in the designation of additional river miles as Wild and Scenic.

At the state and federal levels, Delaware Nature Society is leading CDRW members in advocacy efforts to protect freshwater wetlands through an improved state law, addressing PFAs through disposal management and new federal standards, and seeking appropriations to fund open space and other conservation programs.