EPA announces $3.8M for environmental justice projects in Oregon
SEATTLE — Yesterday, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced $3,857,209 to fund six projects in Oregon.
The selectees will use the funds to ensure disadvantaged communities that have historically suffered from underinvestment have access to clean air and water and climate resilience solutions.
The grants are available through EPA’s Environmental Justice Collaborative Problem Solving Cooperative Agreement and Environmental Justice Government-to-Government programs. This is the largest investment ever announced under these two longstanding EPA programs.
“Across the Pacific Northwest our communities can see and feel the impacts of legacy pollution and climate change in their day-to-day lives,” said EPA Region 10 Administrator Casey Sixkiller. “These funds are an opportunity for historically underserved areas to advance community driven solutions that improve public health and the environment.”
“Everyone, in every corner of Oregon—and around the country—deserves clean air and water, and protection from climate chaos,” said Senator Jeff Merkley. “With extreme weather events like catastrophic wildfires and hazardous smoke intensifying across the Pacific Northwest, this EPA funding to advance environmental justice is even more essential to removing barriers and increasing access and resiliency for communities that are impacted first and hardest.”
“This federal investment means Oregonians will breathe cleaner air and that our state will keep moving forward on the path to a clean energy future,” said Senator Ron Wyden. “I’m gratified the Inflation Reduction Act that I worked to pass is generating these environmental justice resources for Rockwood in Multnomah County to reduce air pollution and more — and to help the Oakridge-Westfir area of Lane County deal with wildfire smoke.”
EPA’s EJCPS program provides financial assistance to eligible organizations working to address local environmental or public health issues in their communities. In Oregon, the following organizations were selected:
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Center for Intercultural Organizing - $500,000 to work with Central Oregon and Rogue Valley communities with high climate disaster risk.
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Oregon Coast Visitors Association - $500,000 to expand equitable and inclusive movement to and along the Oregon Coast.
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Southern Oregon Forest Restoration Collaborative - $360,000 to collaboratively plan fire education for k-12th grade students and youth workforce training.
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The Trust for Public Land - $500,000 to transform outdated schoolyards into vibrant green spaces in Madras, Oregon.
EPA’s EJG2G program provides funding at the state, local, territorial and Tribal level to support government activities with community-based organizations that lead to measurable environmental or public health impacts in communities disproportionately burdened by environmental harms. In Oregon, the following organizations were selected:
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Lane Regional Air Protection Agency - $997,622 to address environmental and public health challenges related to wildfires in the Oakridge‐Westfir area.
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Multnomah County Health Department - $999,587 to reduce air pollution and carbon emissions through replacing heating and cooling systems, improving indoor air quality and increasing shade in Gresham’s Rockwood neighborhood.
The two grant programs directly advance the Justice40 initiative to deliver 40 percent of the overall benefits of certain federal investments to disadvantaged communities that are marginalized by underinvestment and overburdened by pollution.
EPA Region 10 (Pacific Northwest) - Serving Alaska, Idaho, Oregon, Washington and 271 Tribal Nations. Visit us online, follow us on Twitter and Facebook and subscribe to our RSS feed.