Biden-Harris Administration Announces $1,329,863 for Three Community Air Pollution Monitoring Projects in Florida
Publilshed by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (November 3, 2022) — Today, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has selected the National Coalition of 100 Black Women – Central Florida Chapter Inc., the Hillsborough County Metropolitan Planning Organization, and the Miami -Dade County/Solid Waste Management to receive funding to conduct community air quality monitoring in several underserved communities. These grants are among 132 air monitoring projects in 37 states will receive $53.4 million from President Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act and American Rescue Plan to enhance air quality monitoring in communities across the United States. The projects are focused on communities that are underserved, historically marginalized, and overburdened by pollution, supporting President Biden’s Justice40 Initiative.
“These grants will give communities in the Southeast the tools they need to better understand air quality challenges in their neighborhoods,” said EPA Region 4 Administrator Daniel Blackman. “EPA’s investment in ARP funding will not only advance the agency’s mobile air monitoring labs and air sensor loan programs but improve the agency’s ability to support communities in need of short-term monitoring and air quality information.”
“Protecting the health of families across the Tampa Bay area is a top priority for me as our community’s representative in Congress- and that starts with safeguarding the air we breathe,” said Congresswoman Kathy Castor (FL-14). “I’m proud to have helped pass the American Rescue Plan and the Inflation Reduction Act to deliver investments that will improve air quality and allow Hillsborough County to monitor air pollution in vulnerable neighborhoods along our highways. I’m also grateful to Administrator Regan and President Biden for working to reduce harmful pollution across the board.”
National Coalition of 100 Black Women – Central Florida Chapter Inc. – $440,000.00
The goal of our project is to create a Community AQ Advisory Council (Council) comprised of representatives from underserved communities in Orange County, Fla. that is informed by Community Science AQ Monitoring. Activities will include: (1) a Community Science AQ monitoring program in underserved communities in Orange County, Fla. with Environmental Justice AQ indicators in at least the 80th percentile in the US, & deaths from asthma, chronic lower respiratory disease, diabetes, emphysema, cancer &/or heart disease in the top 4th quartile in Fla.; (2) Equitable process consultation on constituting a representative Council, (3) Technical support to the Council to assist participants serving on the council to understand the monitoring data; and (4) Policy support to draft documents that establish a reporting process so the Community Science data will inform prioritization of further study in communities of color in Orange County, Fla.
Hillsborough County Metropolitan Planning Organization – $389,875.00
The project intends to create a grassroots community network, or distributed air quality monitoring network along I-275 and I-4 focusing on communities of concern to provide data-based information for future project planning. The project will measure known health-impacting air pollutants from vehicular traffic with the intent for community members and school children to learn, participate and help report about localized air quality. The goal is to assist the communities and the Transportation Planning Organization to develop future planning approaches that improve air quality near roadways and improve the equity outcomes of transportation decision making.
Miami-Dade County/Solid Waste Mgmt – $499,988.00
Miami-Dade County has large health and socioeconomic discrepancies, which may be exacerbated by the uneven distribution of ambient air quality pollution sources in and around Environmental Justice and underserved communities. There is currently a very sparse network of ambient air quality monitoring stations, which do not consider the uneven distribution of pollution sources in vulnerable communities. This new program of work is proposed to expand and strengthen partnerships, engage community members in design and performance assessment of a new MDC clean air community partnership program: What’s your 305 Air Quality? To ensure that environmental justice (EJ) communities are included as the central framework to help guide equitable and effective air quality mitigation actions.
The air pollution monitoring projects are made possible by more than $30 million in Inflation Reduction Act funds, which supplemented $20 million from the American Rescue Plan and enabled EPA to support 77 additional projects, more than twice the number of projects initially proposed by community-based nonprofit organizations, state and local governments, and Tribal governments.
These grant selections further the goals of President Biden’s Justice40 Initiative and Executive Order, Tackling the Climate Crisis at Home and Abroad, which directed that 40 percent of the overall benefits of certain Federal investments flow to overburdened communities that face disproportionately high and adverse health and environmental impacts. By enhancing air monitoring and encouraging partnerships with communities, EPA is investing in efforts to better protect people’s health, particularly those in underserved communities.
EPA will start the process to award the funding by the end of 2022, once the grant applicants have met all legal and administrative requirements. Grantees will have three years to spend the funds from the time EPA awards the grants.
See the full list of applications selected for award.
Background
In spring 2021, Congress passed the American Rescue Plan, providing EPA with a one-time supplemental appropriation of $100 million to address health outcome disparities from pollution and the COVID-19 pandemic. Half of that $100 million, was dedicated to air quality monitoring. EPA Regions began awarding nearly $22.5 million from this appropriation in 2022 as direct awards to state, tribal, and local air agencies for continuous monitoring of fine particle and other common pollutants. In addition, EPA Regions are in the process of procuring monitoring equipment using $5 million in American Rescue Plan funding to advance the EPA Regional Offices’ mobile air monitoring capacity and establish air sensor loan programs. . These investments will improve EPA’s ability to support communities that need short-term monitoring and air quality information.
In July 2021, EPA announced the $20 million American Rescue Plan Enhanced Air Quality Monitoring for Communities Grant Competition. The goal of this competition was to improve air quality monitoring in and near underserved communities across the United States, support community efforts to monitor their own air quality, and promote air quality monitoring partnerships between communities and tribal, state, and local governments. EPA received more than 200 applications in response to the competition.
The Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 provides funding to EPA to deploy, integrate, support, and maintain fenceline air monitoring, screening air monitoring, national air toxics trend stations, and other air toxics and community monitoring. Specifically, the Inflation Reduction Act provides funding for grants and other activities under section 103 and section 105 of the Clean Air Act. EPA is using approximately $32.3 million of this funding to select 77 high-scoring community monitoring applications.
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Read the full article at: https://www.epa.gov/newsreleases/biden-harris-administration-announces-1329863-three-community-air-pollution-monitoring
