Equitable Resilience Technical Assistance Projects with States and Tribes
EPA’s Office of Community Revitalization is providing Equitable Resilience technical assistance to four state and tribal governments to plan projects that build resilience to impacts from climate change, natural disasters, and/or industrial or hazardous materials risk. In this context, resilience means building a community’s capacity to prepare for, withstand, recover from, and maintain its identity in the face of risks, allowing for continuity of economic and community functions and quick recovery if a disaster occurs. These four projects, which are using American Rescue Plan funding, will also allow EPA to collaboratively build community capacity to address drinking water issues in underserved communities.
Nature-based resilience strategies such as green infrastructure offer multiple benefits in addition to building disaster resilience, including reducing air pollution, protecting drinking water, cleaning up and enhancing communities with environmental justice concerns, preserving livelihoods and cultures, and enhancing quality of life. Assistance will include using tools such as the EPA and FEMA Regional Resilience Toolkit and engaging the public and stakeholders in exploring and selecting resilience strategies.
EPA’s assistance will be informed by community-based organizations in each location to ensure that the projects are centered on the vision of those who live and work in these communities—especially those whose voices have historically been underrepresented. This effort is part of EPA’s commitment to achieving environmental justice by elevating community efforts to address legacy injustices made worse by a changing climate and the COVID-19 pandemic.
These projects were funded by the American Rescue Plan in 2021 and are being carried out in 2022:
Fort Peck Assiniboine and Sioux Tribes, Montana
Encompassing approximately 3,200 square miles, the Fort Peck Assiniboine and Sioux Tribes Reservation is in the far northeast corner of Montana, on the north side of the Missouri River. Natural disasters that affect the area include drought; severe weather, such as winter storms, straight-line winds, and hail; and wildfires and smoke from wildfires, a major source of air pollution. This technical assistance to the Fort Peck Tribes will build upon and complement their Hazard Mitigation Plan, using climate change scenarios to plan for projected changes to extreme weather and wildfires. The assistance will also help the Tribes develop green infrastructure designs and implementation plans that fit within the updated Hazard Mitigation Plan. This place-based green infrastructure design assistance will help Fort Peck Assiniboine and Sioux Tribes develop locally appropriate strategies that create new recreational green space, support revitalization of community centers, and support long-term climate change resilience and adaptation with nature-based solutions.
Keweenaw Bay Indian Community, Michigan
Located on the shores of Lake Superior in Baraga County, portions of the Keweenaw Bay Indian Community are contaminated with waste material from legacy mining and face significant challenges from coastal erosion that exposes drinking water intakes and other critical infrastructure, including an important coastal wetland, to potential contamination. Protecting the wetlands and the species that live there from heavy metal contamination is vital to the community’s human and ecological health, preservation of traditional health practices and foods, and conservation of critical fish and wildlife habitat. EPA will work with the Keweenaw Bay Indian Community's Natural Resources Department to assess environmental and human health risks along the Lake Superior shoreline and then develop conceptual design options for green infrastructure projects through meaningful public engagement. The resulting green infrastructure designs and project plan are intended to improve broader community resilience, including through workforce development and by identifying specific hazard mitigation strategies that protect the health, safety, economic, and cultural interests of the area.
Terrebonne Parish, Louisiana
This technical assistance will support the Terrebonne Parish Consolidated Government, the Pointe-au-Chien Indian Tribe, the Louisiana Office of Community Development, Louisiana Chief Resilience Officer, and public, private, and academic partners as they develop conceptual designs and specifications for a harbor of refuge and resilience hub. In addition to recovering from the catastrophic damage and economic and health impacts of successive hurricanes in 2020 and 2021, residents and business operators in Terrebonne Parish remain at high risk from future storms. This project will convene local partners to select appropriate sites for new harbors of refuge that can protect an important local industry and preserve cultural traditions and way of life. Harbors of refuge can be designed to also be resilience hubs with multiple benefits to both the fishing industry and to nearby residents, including providing a safe harbor for commercial fishing boats during storms; a place to freeze, process, and store seafood; reliable power during and after storms; and safe drinking water through catchment, storage, and on-site treatment. Project results, including site selection criteria, facility design, and preliminary benefit-cost information could be used by Louisiana and other states as a model for similar facilities in coastal, fishing communities.
State of South Carolina
This technical assistance will support the South Carolina Office of Resilience (SCOR) and partners at South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control to meaningfully engage low-income, flood-prone communities as they develop green infrastructure designs on voluntary buyout properties. A typical buyout and green infrastructure improvement project might include buying a repetitively flooded property, demolishing all structures and impervious surfaces, and installing community-designed green infrastructure site improvements such as parks, trails, green streets, expanded tree canopy, and other features that have multiple benefits. Buyout and green infrastructure projects help to reduce or eliminate risk of loss of life, damage to and repetitive loss of property, and residents’ suffering and hardship. SCOR’s buyout program provides owners and tenants with funding and incentives to relocate to a safer area where drinking water and other infrastructure are at lower risk while restoring natural flood plain functions and creating new green spaces that add social, environmental, and cultural benefits.