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Lions Park Shoreline Project awarded erosion improvement grant

Students during a clean up project along the Pala Lagoon shoreline in Lions Park
Source: Media release from Cong. Aumua Amata's office

Washington, D.C. — Congresswoman Aumua Amata on Tuesday welcomed a 2020 National Coastal Resilience Fund (NCRF) grant that is directed to shoreline erosion improvement at Lions Park, Tutuila. The grant is for project final design and permitting in the effort to create a living shoreline along Lions Park to enhance the critical estuarine habitat in the adjacent Pala Lagoon.

The grant from the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) will support plans to demonstrate alternative erosion protection instead of traditional seawalls. The project will create a locally suitable design for the living shoreline to protect critical infrastructure, improve water quality by increased filtration, and enhance biodiversity.

“I appreciate this federal support for the effort to responsibly protect the Lions Park shoreline,” Aumua Amata said. “Thank you to NOAA and the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, along with anyone at ASG working with this project.”

American Samoa’s Lions Park shore is one of 46 projects nationwide, part of a $37 million national investment, and Tutuila was selected from a competitive list of 300 eligible proposals.

The $337,037 grant itself is to the University of Hawaii at Manoa for this portion of the project, with the resulting work in Tutuila.

The NCRF is supported with additional public and private funding from Shell Oil, TransRe, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), AT&T, and the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD).