Biden-Harris Administration Announces More Than $8.8 Million for 22 Community Air Pollution Monitoring Projects in California
Largest investment for community air monitoring in EPA history funded by President Biden’s Climate and Economic Plans
SAN FRANCISCO – Today, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has selected 20 entities to receive more than $8.8 million in grant funding to conduct community air quality monitoring in California. The grants are among 132 air monitoring projects in 37 states that 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.
“This funding will enhance air quality monitoring in and around underserved communities in California and provide scientific information needed to better understand and address impacts from air pollution,” said EPA Pacific Southwest Regional Administrator Martha Guzman. “EPA is proud to support efforts at the local level to monitor air quality and promote monitoring partnerships between communities and tribal, state, and local governments.”
Grant recipients and projects in California include:
- Comite Civico del Valle, Inc. (Two grants of $500,000 each): CCV will establish a regional air monitoring network in the highly polluted Salton Sea Air Basin to screen for toxic metal hazardous air pollutants at low-cost and high-time resolution leveraging CCV’s existing stationary particulate matter network. CCV will also create education opportunities in the Salton Sea airshed for community members exposed to bad air quality days and high episodes of particulate matter.
- South Coast Air Quality Management District (Two grants totaling $999,900): One project aims to enhance the monitoring of PM2.5 in Wilmington, California, which has been disproportionately impacted by air pollution due to major emissions from nearby goods movement operations. A second project will leverage community, government, and academic partnerships to deploy high-quality data air quality sensors in Southern California communities with environmental justice concerns, according to a plan that reflects community concerns and questions.
- United Latinos, Promoviendo Acción Cívica ($416,395): This grant will help deliver proven air quality monitoring curriculum tailored to the student and community populations in a Sacramento City School District school in the Oak Park Neighborhood and the Twin Rivers School District in North Sacramento.
- Tule River Tribal Council ($500,000): The Tribe will use this funding to establish community air quality monitoring, data collection, and community engagement in an effort to assess and mitigate impacts of climate change and wildfire smoke on the Tule River Indian Reservation.
- Central California Asthma Collaborative ($377,720): Funding will expand the grantee’s network of school-based air monitors with high-performance PM2.5 sensors in disadvantaged communities across the San Joaquin Valley.
“I was proud to vote for both the American Rescue Plan and Inflation Reduction Act—which are making historic investments in the well-being of our communities,” Senator Alex Padilla said. “Accurate air quality data is invaluable for protecting public health, but unfortunately lower income areas often have far less monitoring capabilities. The funding announced today is a significant step in closing the air monitoring gap in the communities that face the highest air pollution—including neighborhoods near ports, major centers for heavy industry, and tribal lands.”
“Air quality is a top concern for our communities in California and my district,” said Congresswoman Nanette Barragán. “For decades, emissions from trucks, ships, and heavy industry throughout Los Angeles have plagued surrounding neighborhoods with higher rates of asthma, heart disease, and lung cancer. Unfortunately, it hits low income communities and communities of color the hardest. This funding from the American Rescue Plan and Inflation Reduction Act will help historically underserved communities like Wilmington identify high levels of air pollution, so governments can take meaningful steps to improve air quality. We must continue to provide funding for environmental initiatives like air quality monitoring that help us hold polluters accountable and create cleaner, safer communities in every zip code.”
Congressman Jim Costa said: "Central Valley residents are impacted by poor air quality. This EPA grant from the Biden-Harris Administration, made possible by the American Rescue Plan and the Inflation Reduction Act, will help monitor and address poor air quality so our children can breathe.”
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 proposed by community-based nonprofit organizations, state and local governments, and tribal governments.
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. By enhancing air monitoring and encouraging partnerships with communities, EPA is investing in efforts to better protect people’s health, particularly those in underserved communities.
EPA will start the process to award the funding by the end of 2022, once the grant applicants have met all legal and administrative requirements. Grantees will have three years to spend the funds from the time EPA awards the grants.
See the full list of applications selected for award.
Background
In spring 2021, Congress passed the American Rescue Plan, providing EPA with a one-time supplemental appropriation of $100 million to address health outcome disparities from pollution and the COVID-19 pandemic. Half of that $100 million, was dedicated to air quality monitoring. EPA Regions began awarding nearly $22.5 million from this appropriation in 2022 as direct awards to state, tribal, and local air agencies for continuous monitoring of fine particle and other common pollutants. In addition, EPA Regions are in the process of procuring monitoring equipment using $5 million in American Rescue Plan funding to advance their mobile air monitoring capacity and establish air sensor loan programs. These investments will improve EPA's ability to support communities that need short-term monitoring and air quality information.
In July 2021, EPA announced the $20 million American Rescue Plan Enhanced Air Quality Monitoring for Communities Grant Competition. The goal of this competition was to improve air quality monitoring in and near underserved communities across the United States, support community efforts to monitor their own air quality, and promote air quality monitoring partnerships between communities and tribal, state, and local governments. EPA received more than 200 applications in response to the competition.
The Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 provides funding to EPA to deploy, integrate, support, and maintain fenceline air monitoring, screening air monitoring, national air toxics trend stations, and other air toxics and community monitoring. Specifically, the Inflation Reduction Act provides funding for grants and other activities under section 103 and section 105 of the Clean Air Act. EPA is using approximately $32.3 million of this funding to select 77 high-scoring community monitoring applications.