EPA Selects over 40 Organizations to Receive $9.3 Million in Pollution Prevention Grants
WASHINGTON (September 23, 2020) — Today, during Pollution Prevention (P2) Week, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is announcing the selection of 42 organizations across 39 states to receive grant funding totaling $9.3 million, supporting pollution prevention across the country. These grants will fund projects that provide businesses and other facilities with information, training, and tools to help them develop and adopt cost-effective changes in production, operation, and use of materials to reduce costs and the use of water, energy, and other natural resources.
“As we celebrate the 30th anniversary of the Pollution Prevention Act, we are proud to announce more than $9 million in P2 grants which will help businesses in communities across the United States protect the environment and reduce waste and costs,” said EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler. “The work done as a result of EPA’s P2 grants will create best practices that current and future organizations can use to cut pollution and advance innovation and economic growth.”
EPA anticipates that it will award these individual grant projects ranging in the amounts of $25,000 to $498,000 once all legal and administrative requirements are satisfied.
For these grants, EPA emphasizes the importance of grantees documenting and sharing P2 best practices that are identified and developed through these grants, so that others can replicate these practices and outcomes. Each grantee will be required to develop at least one case study during the grant period on P2 practices that are new or not widely known or adopted, or where detailed information on the P2 practices could benefit other businesses or P2 technical assistance providers. The work done under these grants will focus on at least one of the five P2 priority areas, also referred to as National Emphasis Areas and support several of the agency’s Smart Sectors. These areas include food and beverage manufacturing, chemical manufacturing, automotive manufacturing, aerospace product/part manufacturing, and metal manufacturing.
This year marks 30 years since the passage of the Pollution Prevention Act, which focuses industry, government, and public attention on reducing the amount of pollution through cost-effective changes in production, operation, and raw materials use. This week is also P2 Week, a time to celebrate the diverse and creative ways businesses, academic institutes, local governments, and other organizations are working to prevent pollution. In support of the Pollution Prevention Act and P2 Week, these grant awards encourage businesses and other stakeholders to find ways to prevent pollution from entering any waste stream, furthering EPA’s mission to protect public health and the environment.
Read more about P2 and the P2 Grant Program.
2020 EPA P2 Grant Recipients:
- Alabama: University of Alabama
- Arizona: Arizona State University
- California: University of California, at Berkeley
- Colorado: Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment
- Connecticut: Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection
- Delaware: University of Delaware
- District of Columbia: District of Columbia Department of Energy and Environment
- Georgia: Georgia Tech
- Idaho: Idaho Department of Environmental Quality
- Illinois: University of Illinois
- Iowa: Iowa Department of Natural Resources
- Kansas: Kansas State University
- Kentucky: Kentucky Department of Compliance Assistance
- Louisiana: Louisiana State University
- Maine: University of Southern Maine
- Maryland: Maryland Department of Environment
- Michigan: Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy
- Minnesota: Minnesota Pollution Control Agency
- Mississippi: Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality
- Missouri: Missouri State University
- Montana: Montana State University
- Nebraska: University of Nebraska, at Lincoln
- Nevada: Western Nevada College
- New Hampshire: New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services
- New Jersey: Rowan University; Rutgers University
- New Mexico: New Mexico State University
- North Carolina: East Carolina University; North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality
- Ohio: Ohio Environmental Protection Agency
- Oregon: Oregon Department of Environmental Quality
- Pennsylvania: Pennsylvania State University
- Rhode Island: Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management
- South Carolina: Clemson University
- Tennessee: Tennessee Department of Environmental Conservation
- Texas: University of Texas, at Arlington
- Vermont: Vermont Department of Environmental Conservation
- Virginia: Virginia Department of Environmental Quality; Wytheville Community College
- Washington: Washington Department of Ecology
- West Virginia: West Virginia University
- Wisconsin: University of Wisconsin