All News Releases By Date

EPA Awards Environmental Justice Small Grants to Communities

Release Date: 10/03/2007
Contact Information: Roxanne Smith, (202) 564-4355 / [email protected]

(Washington, D.C. - Oct. 3, 2007) The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency awarded $1 million in grants across the country for improving the environment in low-income communities. Twenty community-based organizations will receive $50,000 grants each for projects aimed at addressing environmental and public health issues as exposure to toxins, farm worker pesticide protection, fish consumption, indoor air quality, drinking water contamination, and pollution from shipping ports.

"From Anchorage, Alaska to Boston, Massachusetts, engaged communities across the country are seizing the opportunity to clean up their own backyard," said Granta Nakayama, assistant administrator for EPA's Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance. "These grants provide necessary resources for local communities to take an active role in creating solutions to our nation's environmental problems."

Financial assistance under the environmental justice small grants program is available to all non-profit organizations designated by the IRS or recognized by the state, territory, commonwealth or tribe in which it is located. The purpose of the funding is to assist affected communities so that they can develop proactive, strategic, and visionary approaches to address their environmental justice issues and to achieve community health and sustainability.

Since 1994, EPA has provided more than $31 million in funding to more than 1,100 community-based organizations.

The following organizations received grants today:

1. The Way Home Inc. (Manchester, N.H.)
2. Committee for Boston Public Housing Inc. (Boston, Mass.)
3. Brooklyn Center for the Environment Inc. (Brooklyn, N.Y.)
4. West Harlem Environmental Action Inc. (New York, N.Y.)
5. Northern Liberties Neighborhood Association (Philadelphia, Penn.)
6. Southeast Rural Community Assistance Project (Roanoke, Va.)
7. Farmworker Association of Florida Inc. (Apopka, Fla.)
8. Hyde & Aragon Park Improvement Committee Inc. (Richmond, Ga.)
9. Healthy Schools Campaign (Chicago, Ill.)
10. Madison Environmental Justice Organization Inc. (Madison, Wis.)
11. Border Fair Housing and Economic Justice Center (Doña Ana County, N.M.)
12. Doña Ana County Colonias Development Council (Las Cruces, N.M.)
13. Black Health Care Coalition Inc. (Kansas City, Mo.)
14. Stoddard County Development Foundation (Bloomfield, Mo.)
15. Plateau Restoration Inc. (Moab, Utah)
16. The Endocrine Disruption Exchange Inc. (Paonia, Colo.)
17. Environmental Health Coalition (San Diego, Calif.)
18. Asian Pacific Environmental Network (Alameda, Calif.)
19. Alaska Community Action for Toxics (Anchorage, Alaska)
20. Organizing People, Activating Leaders (Portland, Ore.)

More information on the environmental justice grants: epa.gov/compliance/environmentaljustice/grants/ej-smgrants.html