Biden-Harris Administration Selects 24 Recipients to Receive Nearly $16 Million in Pollution Prevention Grants to Advance Environmental Justice

October 12, 2023

WASHINGTON - Today, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced the selection of 24 recipients across the country that will collectively receive nearly $16 million in pollution prevention grants through President Biden’s Investing in America agenda, a key pillar of Bidenomics. The funding, made possible by President Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, will support two grant programs for states and state-sponsored colleges to provide businesses with technical assistance to develop and adopt practices that prevent pollution at the source in local communities.

“Achieving lasting environmental justice requires community-driven solutions boosted by federal resources,” said EPA Administrator Michael S. Regan. “President Biden has secured historic levels of funding to address environmental harms in vulnerable communities under his Investing in America agenda. These dollars have supercharged our ability to empower a wide range of businesses from across the country to deploy solutions that prevent pollution while strengthening economic growth.”

“All Americans should be able to live in communities that are free from the burdens of pollution,” said U.S. Senator Tom Carper (DE), Chairman of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee. “While this has historically not always been the case, especially for many low-income, minority, and indigenous communities, the Biden Administration has and continues to prioritize solutions that address and prevent pollution across our country. After helping secure these environmental justice investments in the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, I’m excited to see communities receive much-needed federal funding to explore safer and more sustainable products that will boost public health while supporting economic opportunity.”

The Environmental Justice in Communities grant program will provide pollution prevention technical assistance to businesses to improve human health and the environment in disadvantaged communities. The Environmental Justice Through Safer and More Sustainable Products  grant program will assist businesses to increase the supply, demand, and use of safer and more sustainable products, such as those certified by EPA’s Safer Choice program, or that conform to EPA’s Recommendations for Specifications, Standards and Ecolabels for Federal Purchasing.

The grant selections for these two programs include a diverse set of projects that will tackle pollution prevention at the community level. For example, two proposed projects involve working with food service providers in disadvantaged communities in Chicago and central Illinois, including restaurants, churches and soup kitchens, to increase the use of safer, more sustainable, and PFAS-free foodware. Projects in California and Minnesota will assist immigrant-owned nail salons in using safer products, including EPA Safer Choice-certified products. The California project will also assist Black-owned hair salons. And in Missouri and Alaska, technical assistance will be provided to the critical minerals mining industry to reduce air pollution, mine waste, and energy consumption in communities affected by mining.

EPA’s Pollution Prevention Grant Program advances President Biden’s Justice40 Initiative, which aims to deliver 40 percent of the overall benefits of certain federal investments to disadvantaged communities that are marginalized by underinvestment and overburdened by pollution.

Ensuring greater availability and use of safer and more sustainable products can reduce harmful chemical exposures and their human health and the environmental impacts in disadvantaged communities and create a more sustainable and accessible marketplace. These efforts will continue to benefit businesses and communities across the nation by capturing what works and what can be adjusted in other communities. Recipients will share successful practices that are new or not widely known, as well as lessons learned, so that future businesses and communities can continue to innovate.

These grants will be fully funded upon being awarded. Individual grant awards may range from $100,000 to $800,000 for state- and city-level projects, or up to $1.2 million for multi-state projects over the funding period. EPA anticipates awarding the grants once all legal and administrative requirements are satisfied. The list of selections can be found below, and the proposed summaries of proposed grantee projects can be found on EPA’s Pollution Prevention website.

List of Grantees for Pollution Prevention Grant: Environmental Justice in Communities

• Massachusetts: University of Massachusetts: Lowell
• California: California Department of Public Health
• Illinois: University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
• Indiana: Indiana Department of Environmental Management
• Kansas: Kansas State University
• Louisiana: Southern University Agricultural Research & Extension Center
• Minnesota: Minnesota Pollution Control Agency
• Missouri: University of Missouri
• New Jersey: Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey
• North Carolina: East Carolina University
• United States Virgin Islands: U.S. Virgin Islands Department of Planning and Natural Resources
• West Virginia: West Virginia University

List of Grantees for Pollution Prevention Grant: Environmental Justice Through Safer and More Sustainable Products

• California: University of California: Los Angeles
• District of Columbia: District of Columbia Department of Energy and Environment
• Hawaii: University of Hawaii
• Illinois: University of Illinois at Chicago Office of Business and Financial Services
• Illinois: University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
• Maryland: Maryland Department of the Environment
• Minnesota: University of Minnesota
• Oregon: Portland State University
• Pennsylvania: Pennsylvania State University Hershey Medical Center
• South Carolina: Clemson University
• Vermont: Vermont Department of Health
• Washington: Washington Department of Ecology

Background:

The United States generates millions of tons of pollution each year and spends billions of dollars per year controlling this pollution. Once in our environment, this pollution harms human and environmental health, which disproportionally impacts underserved communities. Preventing pollution at the source, also known as P2 or source reduction, rather than managing waste after it is produced, is an important part of the solution landscape, and advances a sustainable infrastructure that supports local economies while better protecting public health and the environment. P2 practices can reduce exposure to toxic chemicals, conserve natural resources, and reduce cleanup and financial costs for businesses, particularly for waste management and environmental liability. Practicing P2 is essential for protecting public health and improving environmental conditions in and around disadvantaged communities that have long been overburdened by pollution.

Between 2011-2021, EPA’s Pollution Prevention program has issued nearly 500 grants totaling more than $50 million, which have helped businesses identify, develop and adopt P2 approaches. These approaches have resulted in eliminating 19.8 million metric tons of greenhouse gases, saving 49 billion gallons of water, reducing 917 million pounds of hazardous materials and pollutants, and saving more than $2.2 billion for business.

President Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law is boosting these efforts by providing a historic $100 million to support the program’s continued efforts. Thanks to the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, state and Tribal programs that are awarded grants will not be required to provide matching funds, which has helped expand access to these resources and broadened the applicant pool.

Read more about P2 and the P2 Grant Program.