Environmental Justice Funding under the ARP

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, Congress designated $50 million in EJ funding for grants, contracts, and other agency activities that identify and address disproportionate environmental or public health harms and risks in underserved communities due to COVID-19 and other pollution. This is being done through a range of local initiatives authorized by specified provisions of the Clean Air Act (CAA), the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA), the Brownfields Law, and the Diesel Emissions Reduction Act (DERA).

Review a breakdown of the EJ ARP Funding below.

• Environmental Justice Grants and Technical Assistance: $16,650,000 will be used to fund EJ competitive grants for activities authorized by CAA 103 and SDWA 1442 and direct technical assistance to communities. This includes State EJ Cooperative Agreement awards (SEJCA), EJ collaborative problem-solving (EJCPS), EJ small grants (EJSG), and Technical Assistance Services for Communities (TASC). 
  • EPA Announces $14.1 Million to Fund 133 Environmental Justice Grants
• Diesel Emissions Reduction Act (DERA) Funding: $7,000,000 is offered through a tailored use of the DERA rebate program to fund a pilot program for the replacement of old diesel school buses with new electric school buses for underserved and tribal schools. This program will award funding to 10 selected applicants for 23 electric school bus replacements.
• Civil and Criminal Enforcement: $5,130,000 will be used to expand civil and criminal enforcement to include monitoring near low-income communities and drinking water sources for pollution including air toxics and hazardous metals.
• Brownfields: $5,000,000 will be used to provide technical assistance to address brownfield sites and to increase understanding and community involvement in brownfields cleanup, revitalization, and reuse.

  • EPA Selects Six Organizations to Receive $11 Million in Funding to Deliver Training and Technical Assistance to Brownfield-Impacted Communities Nationwide

• Children's Health: $4,850,000 will go to children’s health issues, which include funding for the Children's Healthy Learning Environments Grant and Pediatric Environmental Health Specialty Units (PEHSUs), including $ 2 million for competitive grants for activities authorized by CAA 103 and SDWA 1442.
  • Explore Children's Health Grants and Funding Opportunities.
• Drinking Water: $4,700,000 will be used for technical assistance to improve drinking water and compliance monitoring in rural and tribal areas.
• Community Technical Assistance: $2,150,000 will support the agency’s community driven solutions effort to collaboratively build community capacity to address air and drinking water issues in underserved communities. 
• Tribal Engagement (Public Participation): $1,600,000 will be used for a grant competition to support efforts by tribes to engage their community members on priority EJ water and air quality issues.
  • EPA Announces Availability of up to $1.6 Million in Environmental Justice Grants for Tribal Public Participation Project.
• Development and Enhancement of Environmental Justice Tools: $720,000 will be used to enhance the development of EJSCREEN, the EJ analysis tool and support related resources. 
• EJ Analytical Projects: $700,000 is allocated to advance data analytics work in the Office of Air and Radiation to identify cumulative burdens and opportunities to improve equity outcomes for vulnerable communities, and to advance regulatory analytics and policy modeling to better incorporate environmental justice considerations. 
• Policy Outreach: $500,000 will support new methods of outreach and support for those performing analysis and outreach related to critical air and drinking water EJ issues in the oil and gas sector.  
• Administrative Costs: $1,000,000 will be used for administrative costs pursuant to the 2 percent reserved in the law for this purpose.