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EPA awards over $170,000 in CARE funds to the Pacific Institute

Release Date: 12/21/2006
Contact Information: Margot Perez-Sullivan, 415.947.4149, [email protected]

SAN FRANCISCO – The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency recently awarded $178,675 to the Pacific Institute, a non-profit organization based in Oakland.

The $178,675 grant, through the agency’s Community Action for a Renewed Environment (CARE) Program, will allow the Pacific Institute to continue its work with the West Oakland Toxic Reduction Collaborative, reducing community exposure to toxins.

“The CARE program empowers communities to reduce air toxins in their environment,” said Wayne Nastri, regional administrator for the EPA’s Pacific Southwest region. “This program provides a framework for collaboration, partnership and innovation to improve public health and the environment.”

“This money will help clean up the air in a community where children are several times more likely to be hospitalized due to asthma than in any other part of California,” said Rep. Barbara Lee, (D-CA). “I am very pleased to offer my ongoing support of the West Oakland Toxics Reduction Collaborative, whose work will be funded by this grant. I applaud the EPA and the West Oakland community for their success in bringing everyone to the table so we can reduce harmful emissions as increased goods movement continues to impact the most vulnerable among us.”

“The Pacific Institute is delighted that the EPA has chosen this promising collaborative for a CARE award,” said Swati Prakash, Director of the Community Strategies for Sustainability & Justice Program at the Pacific Institute. “This award will allow the Pacific Institute, the West Oakland Environmental Indicators Project, and our many community, government, and private sector partners to deepen our work for healthier homes for West Oakland residents, and to see long overdue pollution reductions from dirty diesel trucks in this community.”

West Oakland has some of the highest asthma rates in the country. The Pacific Institute’s primary objective is to work with stakeholders such as the Port of Oakland, the Bay Area Air Quality Management District, independent truckers, the shipping industry and members of the impacted communities to reduce the amount of air and other toxins residents and workers are exposed to as a result of goods movement activity.

The CARE program is a competitive grant program that offers an innovative way for communities to work at the local level to address the risks from multiple sources of toxics in their environment, bringing together a wide variety of local stakeholders.

For more information on the CARE grant program go to: https://www.epa.gov/care/index.htm