Biden-Harris Administration Announces More than $4.27 Million for Community Air Pollution Monitoring Projects in Pennsylvania
Largest investment for community air monitoring in EPA history funded by President Biden’s Climate and Economic Plans
PHILADELPHIA (Nov. 3, 2022) – The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has selected 11 projects to receive more than $4.27 million in funding for monitoring air quality in communities across Pennsylvania. The projects are among 132 air monitoring projects in 37 states which will receive $53.4 million from President Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act and American Rescue Plan to enhance air quality monitoring in communities across the United States.
The projects are focused on communities that are underserved, historically marginalized, and overburdened by pollution, supporting President Biden’s Justice40 Initiative.
“Funding for these projects will finally give communities, some who for years have been overburdened by polluted air and other environmental insults, the data and information needed to better understand their local air quality and have a voice for real change,” said EPA Mid-Atlantic Regional Administrator Adam Ortiz. “This air monitoring work will also be useful as communities and local leaders work to revitalize neighborhoods and grow their local economy.”
“Today’s announcement is a huge win for the health and safety of families across PA-05,” said Representative Mary Gay Scanlon (D-Pa.) “Our region has long struggled with dangerous air quality and the negative health impacts associated with it, including high rates of cancer and childhood asthma. The new funding, made possible by the Inflation Reduction Act and the American Rescue Plan, will empower our state and local governments and nonprofits with the tools they need to track and monitor air quality in our communities, particularly in our underserved communities that often bear the brunt of the negative health impacts associated with poor air quality. I’m proud to have cast my vote for the historic pieces of legislation that made this investment possible, and I look forward to my continued work with the EPA and the Biden Administration to deliver the federal funding Pennsylvania families need to grow and thrive.”
The air pollution monitoring projects are made possible by more than $30 million in Inflation Reduction Act funds, which supplemented $20 million from the American Rescue Plan and enabled EPA to support 77 additional projects, more than twice the number of projects initially selected for funding.
These grant selections further the goals of President Biden’s Justice40 Initiative and Executive Order, Tackling the Climate Crisis at Home and Abroad, which directed that 40 percent of the overall benefits of certain Federal investments flow to overburdened communities that face disproportionately high and adverse health and environmental impacts.