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January 9, 1998
MEMORANDUM
SUBJECT: Allocation of Grant Funds for PM-2.5 Monitoring
FROM: Jerry Kurtzweg, Director /signed/
Office of Program Management Operations
TO: Air Division Directors, Regions 1 - 10
I have attached charts showing the amount of FY 1998 grant dollars
available to your region for award to state and local agencies for
establishment and operation of PM-2.5 monitoring systems. We have
initiated the reprogrammings to transfer these funds into regional
accounts. The funds, which will be available for award as soon as the
Comptroller's Office approves the reprogrammings, are in Program Element
E17A2C and are identified by a three-letter code, APO. (The funds for
Region 1, for example, would be identified as 0100APO.)
Statutory Requirements
For FY 1998 the Congress appropriated a total of $35.6 million in
the State and Tribal Assistance Grant (STAG) account for "particulate
matter monitoring and data collection" by state, tribal, and local
agencies. This amount includes the $10.9 million requested by the
President and an additional $24.7 million added by the Congress. The
appropriations bill, Public Law 105-65, includes language indicating
that these funds are "for making grants under section 103 of the Clean
Air Act."
Region-by-Region Allocation of State and Local Grant Funds
Attachment A shows the revised, region-by-region allocation of
section 105 funds for FY 1998 and the new allocation of section 103
funds. Attachment B shows the allocation of the section 103 funds in
more detail. Mary Nichols sent the original allocation of section 105
funds to regional offices as an attachment to her memo, "FY 1998
Consolidated National Guidance." The revised allocation reflects the
Congressional action on PM-2.5 monitoring and Agency decisions on
"bump-ups" for ozone nonattainment areas. The Congressional action,
which reduces the section 105 funds by $10.9 million, affects all
regions. The bump-up decisions result in a redistribution of $489,930
from Region 7 to Regions 6 and 9. Region 7 will have to initiate the
reprogrammings to transfer these funds.
The general bases for the section 103 allocation are described in
a December 16, 1997 memo, "Revised Allocations of FY 98 Air Grant
Funds," from John Seitz to Dick Wilson. The final allocation is
included in a December 31, 1997 memo, "Second Addendum to Revised
Allocations of FY 98 Grant Funds," also from John Seitz to Dick Wilson.
The bottom line of the region-by-region allocation in Attachment A
differs from the allocation in Attachment I of the December 31 memo only
because we have already distributed the $3.9 million "Regional
Set-aside" for "Agency Geographic Initiatives" to Regions 5, 6, and 9.
Monitoring Levels of Particulate Matter on Tribal Lands
The President's budget request for FY 1998 also included STAG funds
for monitoring air quality, including levels of particulate matter, on
tribal lands. We have established a work group that includes
representatives of EPA headquarters and regional offices and tribes to
develop a strategy for targeting about $1 million of these funds to
measuring particulate levels. We expect this strategy to be completed
by the end of February 1998.
If you have any questions about the attachments or the level of
funding currently in your region's accounts, please call me at (202)
260-7415.
Attachment A
Attachment B
cc: Assistant Regional Administrators for Policy and Management, Regions 1 - 10
Regional Grant Coordinators, Regions 1 - 10
Bill Houck
David LaRoche
Kelly Spencer
Ieva Spons
Jerry Stubberfield
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