The $16 million in new grant opportunities to help states and Tribes develop pollution prevention (P2) practices is aimed at advancing environmental justice in historically underserved communities, an EPA official said in a March 8 news release.

“For too long, underserved communities have suffered the harmful effects of pollution across the country,” Jennie Romer, EPA Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention Deputy Assistant Administrator for Pollution Prevention, said in the release. “President Biden’s investment in America is supercharging our efforts to protect more communities than ever before. These new grants will advance environmental justice by equipping American businesses with resources that save money, prevent pollution at the source, reduce the use of hazardous materials, and cut climate pollution.”

The two funding opportunities are the Pollution Prevention Grant: Environmental Justice in Communities, and the Pollution Prevention Grant: Environmental Justice Through Safer and More Sustainable Products, the release reports. These grants will equip American businesses with resources that save money, reduce hazardous materials, and cut climate pollution. The grants, funded by President Joe Biden's Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, will provide awards from $100,000 to $800,000, with up to $1.2 million earmarked for multi-state or -tribal projects, according to the release. Funding recipients are not required to match funds for the grants, according to the release.

P2 projects are designed to prevent pollution at the source rather than managing it after its produced, according to the EPA. | Exchange Photos/Wikimedia Commons

The Pollution Prevention Grant: Environmental Justice in Communities, will pay for technical assistance for businesses that specifically target and improve human health and the environment in disadvantaged communities. 

The Pollution Prevention Grant: Environmental Justice Through Safer and More Sustainable Products supports technical assistance to businesses to increase the supply, demand and/or use of safer and more sustainable products. 

"These two-year grants are a critical component of the Biden-Harris Administration’s Justice40 Initiative which aims to deliver 40% of the overall benefits of climate, clean energy and other investments to disadvantaged communities," the EPA states in the release. 

Eligible applicants include states, universities, U.S. territories and possessions, and federally recognized tribes and intertribal consortia, according to the release. Applicants are "strongly encouraged" to partner with P2 stakeholders and community organizations; and the "EPA requests that applicants target their projects to help communities overburdened by a legacy of pollution using geographic, demographic, environmental or other appropriate indicators." the announcement states.