The Nature Conservancy has received a $2 million gift to begin a “Healthy Streams Initiative” to improve polluted waterways in the state.

The gift from the David T. Beals III charitable trust is the largest in the history of the conservancy’s Kansas Chapter, the nonprofit’s top Kansas official said Wednesday.

“We all want to protect and improve water in Kansas,” said Rob Manes, state director of the Nature Conservancy in Kansas.

About 75 percent of streams in Kansas are impaired, according to a 2012 assessment by the Kansas Department of Health and Environment.

“That’s unacceptable,” Manes said. “It’s easy to blame businesses and cities, but we are all responsible. We all have something to gain by recovering our streams.”

Manes said the majority of the money will go toward hiring a stream conservation manager and providing fellowships to five Kansas students.

The conservation manager will not only work to restore and protect degraded streams but also to increase awareness and understanding of the problem.

Creating awareness may not be easy. A survey found that 75 percent of Kansas voters could not identify the source of their drinking water, a Nature Conservancy press release said.

Manes said to achieve its goals, the Nature Conservancy will build model projects on its own lands as well as others, and collaborate with officials from universities, government and private businesses to ensure the “greatest returns on investment can be realized.”