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EPA awards $70,000 to local companies in Oregon and Washington for Small Business Innovation Research

Release Date: 06/08/2006
Contact Information: Estella Waldman, (202) 343-9803, [email protected], Tony Brown, (206) 553-1203, [email protected]

(Seattle, WA – Jun 8, 2006) Michael Bogert, EPA Region 10 Administrator, today announced that four small businesses in Region 10 each received $70,000 from the EPA’s Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program.

EPA’s highly competitive SBIR program offers critical financial support to small businesses to develop the best, new and innovative environmental technologies. EPA’s SBIR program focuses on important areas related to environmental protection, including clean air and water, hazardous and solid waste management and pollution prevention, remediation and monitoring. Recent issues include homeland security, clean-up technologies and technology solutions for specific environmental needs.

“EPA relies on high quality science as the basis for sound policy and decision-making and to power innovative problem solving,” said Michael Bogert, Region 10 Administrator. “EPA’s laboratories, research centers and grantees – including small businesses are building the scientific foundation supporting the Agency’s mission to safeguard human health and the environment.”

The following companies in Oregon and Washington received awards:

Oregon

Quantec, L.L.C., based in Portland, will complete the development of a tool to estimate the impacts of eco-roofs on energy usage in commercial buildings. Vegetated roofs or eco-roofs offer diverse benefits, including energy savings and stormwater runoff reduction. To learn more about this project, please visit: https://cfpub.epa.gov/ncer_abstracts/index.cfm/fuseaction/display.abstractDetail/abstract/7945/report/0.

MixZon, Inc., located in Portland, will be exploring the use of lightweight infrared and video cameras mounted on unmanned, tethered, helium balloons to remotely monitor water quality at a site. Information would be accessed via a wireless network. To learn more about this project, please visit: https://cfpub.epa.gov/ncer_abstracts/index.cfm/fuseaction/display.abstractDetail/abstract/7953/report/0.

Washington

Frontier Geosciences, Inc., based in Seattle, is developing a technology that potentially reduces volatile mercury emissions from coal-fired utilities by approximately 95 percent. This technology requires no additional equipment, thereby reducing capital and implementation costs. To learn more about this project, please visit: https://cfpub.epa.gov/ncer_abstracts/index.cfm/fuseaction/display.abstractDetail/abstract/7966/report/0.

RJ Lee Group, Inc., based in Pasco, will use treatment sludge produced during mining operations to manufacture Portland cement. The successful completion of this project will result in the establishment of a process that will provide the cement industry with an economic source of calcium, aluminum and iron while at the same time reducing the costs at facilities treating acid mine drainage. To learn more about this project, please visit: https://cfpub.epa.gov/ncer_abstracts/index.cfm/fuseaction/display.abstractDetail/abstract/7939/report/0.

The 22 million small businesses in the United States employ about 51 percent of the private work force and develop most of the country’s new technologies. Years ago, Congress recognized the need to strengthen the participation of small businesses in federally-funded research and development by passing a law creating the Small Business Innovation Research program for businesses with fewer than 500 employees.

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