U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Office of Ecosystems and Communities
Elbert Moore, Director
The following information is taken from Appendix C: Summary of Community Grant Programs from USEPA Region 10, February 1997
Purpose: To support low-income communities and/or communities of color to become aware of and participate in the decision-making processes that impact their environmental quality.
Eligible Applicants: Affected community-based and grassroots organizations, tribes, or other incorporated nonprofits.
Award Amount: Up to $20,000.
Total, FY96 in Region 10: $299,027
Matching Share: No matching share is required.
Application Due (approx): March
Grant Announced: Summer
Priorities (Summary): Projects that improve the environmental quality of the community by:
1. having wide application or addressing a high priority area;
2. enhancing skills in addressing EJ issues & problems;
3. establishing or expanding information systems for communities;
4. facilitating communication, information exchange, and community partnerships;
5. motivating the public to be more conscious of EJ issues, leading to action to address those issues.
Contact: Susan Morales
Telephone: (206) 553-8580
Environmental Justice through Pollution Prevention (EJ/P2)
Purpose: To help community-based and grassroots groups, and Tribal organizations implement projects that use pollution prevention to address environmental justice concerns
Eligible Applicants: State, City, County, or local governments, federally recognized Indian tribal governments, or nonprofit organizations incorporated under IRS tax code 501 (c)(3)
Award Amount: Up to $100,000 for a local project. Up to $250,000 for a multi-state or regional project
Total, FY96 in Region 10: $207,000
Matching Share: For nongovernmental applicants: grants under $50,000, no match is required; over $50,000, 5% match is required
Application Due (approx): April
Grant Announced: Summer
Priorities (Summary):
1. Projects by community-based organizations & local governments that improve the environmental quality of affected communities using pollution prevention.
2. Proposals that encourage institutionalization & innovative use of pollution prevention as the preferred approach for addressing environmental justice issues, and whose activities and products can be supplied to other communities.
3. Cooperative efforts with business or industry to address pollution prevention goals.
Contact: Carolyn Gangmark
Telephone: (206) 553-4072
Brownfields Assessment Demonstration Pilots
Purpose: To empower states, communities, and other stakeholders to work together in a timely manner to prevent access, safely clean up, and sustainably reuse Brownfields.
Eligible Applicants: States, cities, towns, counties, U.S. Territories, and Indian tribes.
Award Amount: Up to $200,000
Total, FY96 in Region 10: $700,000
Matching Share: No matching share is required.
Application Due (approx): January
Grant Announced: Spring
Priorities (Summary): Projects that:
1. encourage community groups, investors, lenders, developers, and other affected parties to join forces and develop creative solutions to assess and clean up contaminated sites and return them to productive use;
2. create Brownfields inventories at a local level;
3. provide models of administrative, managerial, and technical processes from which other states and localities can learn as they set up processes to assess, cleanup, and redevelop sites of their own.
Note: This program utilizes Cooperative Agreements, not grants.
Contact: Lori Cohen
Telephone: 206) 553-6S23
Purpose: To help community groups efficiently address local environmental justice issues through active partnerships with institutions of higher education.
Eligible Applicants: Institutions of higher education which have formal partnerships with one or more community group(s).
Award Amount: Up to $250,000
Total, FY96 in Region 10: $205,000
Matching Share: 5% non-federal share of costs is required. In-kind contributions may be used to meet this match. Matches greater than 5% are encouraged.
Application Due (approx): March
Grant Announced: Summer
Priorities (Summary): EPA will emphasize meaningful, fully
interactive two-way cooperation between communities and institutions of higher education to:
1. address environmental justice issues;
2. identify pollution sources;
3. train residents on their rights and responsibilities; and
4. help resolve environmental problems.
Through these partnerships, communities are encouraged to become involved in accessing information from environmental databases, cleaning up and restoring areas that have environmental problems, and surveying and monitoring environmental quality.
Contact: Joyce Kelly
Telephone: (206) 553-4029
Purpose: To support communities in establishing partnerships to encourage environmentally and economically sustainable practices.
Eligible Applicants: Local governments, Tribes, educational institutions, and incorporated nonprofits.
Award Amount: New Program. Not available. Majority of funding is expected to be targeted to urban areas.
Total, FY96 in Region 10: $100,000
Matching Share: 20% nonfederal government matching share is required.
Application Due (approx): New Program. Not available.
Grant Announced: New Program. Not available.
Priorities (Summary):
1. Promote cooperation and collaboration among citizens, businesses, nonprofit organizations, educational institutions, government and others to develop locally appropriate tools and processes for sustainable environmental practices.
2. Encourage community investment in, and commitment to, environmental protection and increasing understanding of the dependence of long-term economic health on the environment.
3. Build local and regional capacity for conducting and implementing sustainable planning.
4. Identify and design effective models and tools for supporting these purposes that can be widely shared by communities nationwide.
5. Use federal funds to foster long-term investments in innovative sustainability efforts at the community level.
Contact: Jim Werntz
Telephone: (206) 553-2634
Purpose: To provide financial support for projects which design, demonstrate, or disseminate environmental education practices, methods, or techniques.
Eligible Applicants: State, Tribal, or local education agencies, colleges, and universities, nonprofits, state environmental agencies, and noncommercial educational broadcasting agencies.
Award Amount: Up to $25,000 granted regionally; $25,001-$250,000 nationally.
Total, FY96 in Region 10: $150,000
Matching Share: 25% non-federal government matching share is required.
Application Due (approx): February
Grant Announced: Summer
Priorities (Summary): Project must develop an environmental education practice, method, or technique which meets all of the following criteria:
1. is new or significantly improved;
2. has the potential for wide application;
3. addresses a high priority environmental issue; and
4. reaches key audiences and advances the environmental education field.
These priorities may change from year to year.
Contact: Sally Hanft
Telephone: (206) 553-1207
Purpose: To provide money for demonstration projects that promote effective solid waste management through Source reduction, reuse, and recycling.
Eligible Applicants: Government agencies, Indian tribes, and non-profits.
Award Amount: Limited funds available; typical award less than $50,000.
Total, FY96 in Region 10: $419,300
Matching Share: 5% non-federal government matching share is required.
Application Due (approx): To Be Determined
Grant Announced: To Be Determined
Priorities (Summary):
1. Innovative recycling programs;
2. Outreach & training in source reduction & recycling;
3. Pollution prevention or environmental justice projects;
4. Projects that use integrated solid waste management systems to solve municipal solid waste generation and management problems at local, regional, or national levels.
Contact: Fran Stefan
Telephone: (206) 553-6639
Pollution Prevention Incentives for States (PPIS)
Purpose: To promote the establishment and expansion of regional, state, Tribal, or locally based multi-media pollution prevention programs.
Eligible Applicants: State environmental agencies and federally recognized Tribes.
Award Amount: $100,000 for each state; $25,000 for Tribes (competitive, $75,000 total).
Total, FY96 in Region 10: $452,500
Matching Share: 50% matching share is required.
Application Due (approx): March
Grant Announced: Summer
Priorities (Summary): Statutory objective is promoting source reduction by businesses. PPIS resources support state and Tribal programs that:
1. operate within both governmental and nongovernmental institutions of the state;
2. facilitate cross-state initiatives and region-based projects;
3. leverage pollution prevention (P2) opportunities and activities from other organizations within the state;
4. target areas which advance the concept of P2 in new issues or priorities and facilitate new approaches to P2 which may vary from those outlined in existing programs.
Contact: Carolyn Gangmark
Telephone: (206) 553-4072
Purpose: To help communities affected by a site on the Superfund National Priorities List (NPL) to obtain technical assistance to understand and comment on site-related information, and thus participate in cleanup decisions.
Eligible Applicants: Communities affected by an NPL site. All citizen groups must be incorporated as nonprofit organizations.
Award Amount: Up to $50,000 initially for three years. For complex sites, additional funds may be available.
Total, FY96 in Region 10: $0
Matching Share: 20% non-federal government matching share is required; in-kind contributions may be used to meet this match. Match can be waived.
Application Due (approx): Applications may be submitted after a site is proposed for listing on the NPL.
Grant Announced: After community notification period (30 to 60 days), application review & processing time, & approval.
Priorities (Summary):
1. Enable or enhance community involvement in decisions related to Superfund sites.
2. Because only one grant is available for each NPL site, EPA encourages groups to consolidate in order to provide technical assistance to the most widely representative group of people possible.
3. To this end, EPA notifies the community via a public notice in the local newspaper when a letter of intent is received from an eligible group.
Contact: Michelle Pirzadeh
Telephone: (206) 553-1272