EPA
Selects UC Berkeley, State of California, Viejas Band of Kumeyaay Indians for
Grants Funded by Bipartisan Infrastructure Law
Pollution Prevention Grants Focus on Promoting Safer Products, Helping
Businesses in Underserved Communities
Contact Information
Joshua Alexander (alexander.joshua@epa.gov)
415-214-5940
SAN FRANCISCO -
Today, at a press event at the University of California, Berkeley, U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Deputy Administrator Janet McCabe
announced the selection of the University of California, Berkeley, the
California Department of Toxic Substances Control, and the Viejas Band of
Kumeyaay Indians to receive a total of $1,034,275 in three pollution
prevention grants made possible by President Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure
Law. The grants will allow states and Tribes to help businesses develop
practices to prevent or reduce pollution, while also reducing business and
potential liability costs.
“These grants made possible by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law will
enhance EPA’s efforts to protect Californians from potential hazardous
exposures in their homes, workplaces, schools and communities,” said EPA Deputy Administrator Janet McCabe.
"These grants will help companies reduce the use of hazardous chemicals,
reduce waste, conserve resources and improve their financial and environmental
sustainability.”
The three grants being announced today will support the following projects:
The University of
California, Berkeley Broadening
Greener Solutions project will serve to reduce hazardous chemicals
in commerce by pairing students with businesses to identify safer alternatives
to hazardous chemicals in consumer products. The focus will be on products with
high impacts in overburdened and underserved communities, and the University
will receive $334,275 in grant funding. As part of this project, the students
provide product manufacturers chemical hazard and alternative assessment
reports (Greener Solutions), and then the University places students in
internships to continue research and implementation of the proposed solutions
(Greener Partnerships).
“This grant from EPA will allow us to launch an entirely new undergraduate
program to pair Berkeley's top student minds with external industry partners in
order to solve real-world green chemistry challenges,“ said Megan Arnett, Executive Director of
Berkeley’s Center for Green Chemistry. “The students and expert
instructors will work with the industry partner to identify safer alternatives
to a chemical of concern to the industry. The industry partner walks away with
customized, actionable recommendations for making their product safer for
consumers and the environment, while launching a new generation of students
thinking critically about safer materials innovation and pollution prevention.”
The California
Department of Toxic
Substances Control’s (DTSC’s) Integrating and Evaluating Environmental Justice Impacts
in Alternatives Assessment for Safer Consumer Products project will
provide tools and guidance to help manufacturers evaluate impacts on
underserved communities when looking for safer chemicals in their products.
DTSC will receive $350,000 to expand the consideration of environmental justice
impacts when evaluating and comparing chemicals for use in products. The
project will develop guidance and nationally accessible training modules on
tools, databases, and methodologies.
The Viejas Band of
Kumeyaay Indians’ Intertribal
Pollution Prevention project will support training and technical
assistance to businesses on how to reduce hazardous chemical, energy and water
use on the Viejas Indian Reservation. The Viejas Band will receive $350,000 for
the project, which will include waste reduction and resource use assessments,
implementation of pollution prevention measures, staff trainings, data
tracking, and other assistance. The overall project goal will be the reduction
of hazardous chemicals used in operations, reduction of energy and water use,
and provision to staff and tribal colleagues of valuable knowledge that can
transcend the workplace to their homes and lifestyle. The project will be used
to develop new resources that can be shared with other Tribal nations using the
web platform, Tribal Pollution Prevention Action.
EPA’s Pollution Prevention Program advances President Biden’s Justice40
Initiative, which aims to deliver at least 40 percent of the benefits of
certain government programs to underserved communities. To broaden and
diversify the applicant pool for this round of grants, state and Tribal
programs will not be required to provide matching funds, as is required by
traditional pollution prevention grants. Many of the grants awarded nationwide
will support implementation of pollution prevention practices in Indian
country.
The United States produces billions of pounds of pollution each year and
spends billions of dollars per year controlling this pollution. Preventing
pollution at the source, rather than managing waste after it is produced,
advances a sustainable economic and environmental infrastructure. Pollution
prevention can reduce exposure to toxic chemicals, conserve natural resources,
and lower business costs, particularly costs associated with waste management,
disposal and cleanup. These practices are essential for protecting health,
improving environmental conditions in and around disadvantaged communities, and
preserving natural resources like wetlands, groundwater sources, and other
critical ecosystems.
These grants are the first of five pollution prevention grant programs over
the next five years that will be funded by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.
Other upcoming programs will encourage products, purchasing, and/or supply
chains that are safer, more sustainable, and environmentally preferable. These
grants will also encourage businesses that are working in, or working with,
underserved and disadvantaged communities to adopt pollution prevention
practices. Later this year, EPA also anticipates awarding traditional pollution
prevention grants administered by the agency for over 25 years.
EPA anticipates that it will award the grants once all legal and
administrative requirements are satisfied.
Read more about Pollution Prevention and the Pollution Prevention Grant
Program on EPA’s Pollution
Prevention (P2) webpage.
For more information on funding visit EPA’s Bipartisan
Infrastructure Law webpage.
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