The Virginia Science Museum at Belmont Bay in Woodbridge will receive a $250,000 federal grant, pushing the total federal contribution to the $120 million project over $1 million.
Rep. Tom Davis, R-Va., secured the funding after fighting off an attempt to cut it on the House floor, according to a statement from his office.
“The Belmont Bay Science Center is a valuable environmental resource, helping to monitor the long-term health of the Occoquan and Potomac Rivers — and, by extension, the Chesapeake Bay,” Davis said in a statement.
The science center is in the process of raising money and developing exhibits with the U.S. Department of Energy, said Jack Parry, the center’s executive director.
“We will have a lot of environmental programs and exhibits. This is nice planning money and execution for those programs,” Parry said.
“We really are hopeful that the state will step forward and provide funds as well. The county is prepared to assist,” said Sean Connaughton, Prince William Board of County Supervisors chair.
Connaughton said the D.C. metropolitan area is the only one in the United States without a science center and Northern Virginia is the most populous region in the state without one.
Parry and Connaughton both said they eagerly await state funding.
Virginia Science museum at Belmont Bay
» Will be located at the confluence of the Occoquan and Potomac rivers
» George Mason University will have laboratories on the site
» Will partner with area parks and wildlife refuges
» Expected to be up and running by late 2007
» www.bblsc.org
