All News Releases By Date

 

$3 Million to be awarded to Support Communities and Reduce Pollution

Release Date: 12/17/2008
Contact Information: Sally Hanft, EPA CARE Program, (206) 553-1207, [email protected] Tony Brown, EPA Public Affairs, (206) 553-1203, [email protected]

(Seattle, WASH. – December 17, 2008) The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Region 10, is announcing EPA's national grant competition through the Community Action for a Renewed Environment (CARE) program. EPA is currently accepting proposals to support community-based partnerships to reduce pollution at the local level. The deadline to submit proposals to EPA Headquarters is March 16, 2009. About $3 million will be available nationally in 2009.

CARE is a competitive grant program that offers an innovative way for communities to organize and take action to locally identify and reduce their air, land and water environmental concerns.

The CARE program helps communities address their risks comprehensively through technical assistance and resources. As communities create local stakeholder groups that successfully reduce risks from numerous sources, CARE helps them build the long-term capacity to understand and address their environmental concerns in their environment. CARE projects are created to be a cooperative agreement and a partnership between the grantee and the EPA region and Headquarters.

The following entities are eligible to apply:

• Local, public nonprofit institutions and organizations
• Federally recognized Indian tribal governments
• Native American organizations
• Private nonprofit institutions and organizations
• Colleges and universities
• Quasi-public nonprofit institutions and organizations (both interstate and intrastate)

State governments or their agencies are not eligible to apply. EPA hopes to work with state agencies as partners to support CARE communities, where appropriate.

The CARE program will conduct three identical national informational sessions for potential applicants via a national web cast seminar on the following dates and times:

February 3: 12:30 - 2:00 p.m. EST
February 24: 12:30 - 2:00 p.m. EST
February 27: 10:00 - 11:30 a.m. EST

To register for the upcoming CARE Internet Seminar for either of the above dates, please go to: http://www.cluin.org/studio/seminar.cfm and click on the registration link for the "CARE Request for Proposals Q&A".

After the three national Web cast sessions are completed, a recorded version of the full web cast seminar will available on: https://www.clu-in.org/live/archive.

The deadline for receipt of hard copy proposal packages is March 16, 2009 by 4:00 p.m., EST. All hard copy proposal packages must be received by Marva King, by 4:00 p.m., EST on March 16, 2009 in order to be considered for funding. Electronic submissions must be submitted via http://www.grants.gov/ by March 16, 2009, 11:59 p.m., EST. Proposals received after the closing date and time will not be considered for funding.

Nationwide in 2008, EPA awarded $2.5 million to CARE cooperative agreements for 18 communities in rural and urban areas, out of 130 applicants. EPA has funded 68 CARE projects in 64 communities nationwide since 2005. Regional projects have been funded in the Seattle International District, Tacoma-Pierce County, Yakima Valley, Spokane County, Portland area, and Nelson Island in Alaska. These projects are helping the communities identify and prioritize their environmental issues. The communities are then able to address issues like solid waste and air quality in the Seattle International District, agriculture-related issues in the Yakima County, and in the Portland area reducing toxics and promoting green alternatives.

Additional information about the CARE program can be found at www.epa.gov/care.
###