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Welcome to the latest e-newsletter of the Office of Environmental Justice (OEJ) at the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP). This is a quarterly publication where we share helpful information and resources to benefit you and your community.
Know someone who’d benefit from this information? Please share and invite them to subscribe. Can we count on you to spread the word?
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DEP’s Office of Environmental Justice is growing!
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OEJ has officially welcomed three new members to the team: Fernando Trevino is the Special Deputy for the OEJ, Amani Reid joins Juan Serrat in the Southeast Regional Office as the Eastern Regional Coordinator, and Ricardo Almodovar, located in the Southcentral Regional Office, serves as the Central Regional Coordinator. OEJ will soon fulfill the remaining regional coordinator vacancies for the Northcentral and Western Regional Offices.
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Climate Action for Environmental Justice Communities (CAEJC) Regional Meetings
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The DEP Energy Programs Office (EPO), the Office of Environmental Justice, and several local partner organizations, hosted seven meetings with community members and community-based organizations to discuss the needs of environmental justice communities in climate planning and adaptation. Meetings were held at locations in Meadville, Pittsburgh, Scranton, Reading, Harrisburg, Norristown, and Philadelphia (and streamed online), during which participants highlighted concerns related to barriers to participation in existing grant and assistance programs and accessibility of relevant information for stakeholders. Desires were expressed for greater participation in program planning. Participants also discussed many specific climate adaptation strategies. These are being evaluated and will be discussed in greater detail in EPO’s Guide to Climate Action for Environmental Justice Communities, which the Department anticipates releasing in Summer of 2023.
There is still time to participate in the CAEJC project! To reach a broader audience, EPO and their consultants developed a climate strategy survey platform to capture input on specific climate adaptation strategies, as well as free-form comments. EPO is currently accepting feedback using this platform, which will remain open for a few more weeks. The survey is also available in Spanish. Questions and comments about this program can be sent to ra-epclimate@pa.gov.
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Environmental Justice Advisory Board (EJAB)
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Mark your calendars and join the conversation: OEJ invites you to the upcoming EJAB meeting on May 16th 9am-2pm. EJAB meets quarterly and all meetings are open to the public. A public comment period is also available; if you would like to provide public comments during an EJAB meeting, please contact RA-EPOEJ@pa.gov or 717-772-5633.
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EPA & Environmental Justice
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The EPA is relaunching its National Environmental Justice Community Engagement calls as a first step towards reestablishing meaningful and engaging participation with community groups and the public. You can catch up on past recorded sessions (March 21, April 18) and stay updated on upcoming sessions (May 16) on EPA's website. You can also watch the recorded session addressing the Environmental and Climate Justice Communities Grants Program.
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Pennsylvania Environmental Public Health Tracking (EPHT) Program
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The EPHT Program is newly funded at the Pennsylvania Department of Health (DOH) by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for the 2022-2026 grant cycle. EPHT aims to provide a centralized source for environmental exposure and health outcome data and promote a healthy Pennsylvania for all. EPHT monitors environmental exposures and related health outcomes to identify sociodemographic groups that are disproportionately affected by adverse environmental exposures and inform health intervention and policy initiatives. EPHT data are continually updated and available on the Enterprise Data Dissemination Informatics Exchange website. In addition, EPHT develops educational resources to increase environmental health knowledge. For example, the Putting Environmental Health Data into Action Resource Guide is a collection of one-page lists of actions people can take at individual, community, and structural levels to improve, advocate for, and engage in eight environmental health topics: heat-related illness, lead poisoning, outdoor air pollution, water quality, carbon monoxide, indoor air pollution, vector-borne diseases, and environmental justice. Please contact the PA EPHT Program at ra-dhehtracking@pa.gov with any questions or feedback and to hear about other environmental health initiatives occurring now at DOH.
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PAWSS Invitation to Participate
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The Pennsylvania Department of Health (DOH) is currently establishing the Pennsylvania Wastewater Surveillance System (PaWSS). Wastewater influent can be a valuable source of information for public health surveillance. Wastewater can often provide an estimate of the disease burden for people with and without symptoms; whereas clinical data often only provides disease burden for people with symptoms. The PaWSS program will initially incorporate information on SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, found in wastewater influent, with the current COVID-19 public health response. Identification of SARS-CoV-2 in wastewater can provide an early warning of increases in COVID-19 cases.
PaWSS will work with wastewater treatment facilities across the commonwealth to gather data on SARS-CoV-2 shed in fecal matter. Data will be used to monitor trends in COVID-19 and samples will be analyzed for current and emerging variants of concern. This data will be particularly useful as focus shifts away from COVID-19 testing and at-home tests become increasingly popular. Looking to the future, wastewater epidemiology can be integrated into regular DOH surveillance efforts and be expanded to monitor other diseases and outcomes. Facilities that are interested in joining or sharing data to PaWSS may contact our team at: ra-dhpawss@pa.gov. While it is not guaranteed that we will be able to accommodate all interested facilities, we would like to grow the network so that wastewater-based surveillance is an integrated part of public health response efforts in PA.
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RESOURCES – TOO GOOD NOT TO SHARE
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Growing Greener Plus Grants
The Growing Greener Plus Grants program is soliciting applications for county Stormwater Management Planning (Act 167) grants. The maximum grant request amount is $500,000, and applicants must submit a project workplan. The programs covered under the Growing Greener Plus Grants Program are:
- Growing Greener Watershed Restoration and Protection
- Surface Mining Conservation and Reclamation Act (SMCRA) Bond Forfeiture
- Stormwater Management Planning (Act 167) Grants
Section 319 Nonpoint Source Management Grants
This is a nonpoint source grant where applicants may apply for new Watershed Implementation Plan development in Environmental Justice areas. Grantees must comply with the federal Buy America, Build America Act for funded projects larger than $250,000. Applications are due by 11:59 p.m. on Friday, June 23, 2023. Visit the Section 319 website for more information.
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The Pollution Prevention Grant (P2 Grant)
The Pollution Prevention Grant: Environmental Justice in Communities is a new P2 Grant opportunity to support technical assistance for businesses to specifically target and improve human health and the environment in disadvantaged communities. Applications for this grant are due by June 6, 2023. Additional information is available at Grant Programs for Pollution Prevention.
P2 Grant: Environmental Justice Through Safer and More Sustainable Products will support P2 technical assistance to businesses to increase the supply, demand and/or use of safer and more sustainable products, such as those that are certified by EPA’s Safer Choice program, or those that conform to EPA’s Recommendations for Specifications, Standards and Ecolabels for Federal Purchasing. Applications for this grant are due by June 20, 2023. Additional information is available at Grant Programs for Pollution Prevention.
EPA Environmental Education Grant
Under the Environmental Education Grants Program, EPA seeks grant applications from eligible applicants to support environmental education projects that promote environmental awareness and stewardship and help provide people with the skills to take responsible actions to protect the environment. This grant program provides financial support for projects that design, demonstrate, and/or disseminate environmental education practices, methods, or techniques. Since 1992, EPA has distributed between $2 and $3.5 million in grant funding per year, supporting more than 3,800 grants. For more information visit EPA's Environmental Education Grants webpage.
WalkWorks Grant
WalkWorks is pleased to announce its seventh round of assistance to advance policy development related to active transportation. Grants will be offered to a limited number of municipalities and other governmental bodies to assist with the development of Active Transportation Plans. You can find the Funding Opportunity Announcement on the WalkWorks page on the state Department of Health website.
Eligible grantees are municipalities, counties, and RPOs/MPOs in Pennsylvania, but people and organizations who are not themselves eligible to apply certainly also have a role to play. Talk to municipal leaders in your community, in communities where you work, or in other parts of the Commonwealth that you are involved about the universal relevance of active transportation and the importance of making progress toward safer streets and mobility options for all! If your community has already done an Active Transportation Plan, consider sharing this information with leaders in peer and/or neighboring municipalities. The application deadline is May 26, gather up your formal resolutions and letters of support to accompany submissions.
Whole-Home Repairs Program
Have you heard about the Whole-Home Repairs Program? Last year, 64 out of 67 counties across the Commonwealth applied to administer the program to their residents; thanks to the tireless organizing of a coalition of housing and energy advocates, community organizers, Pennsylvania residents, and legislators on both sides of the aisle committed to taking real action on our state’s ongoing housing crisis.
$125 million was secured to establish the Whole-Home Repairs Program, a one-stop shop in each county across our Commonwealth for lifesaving home repairs and weatherization, while simultaneously building out our local workforce and adding new family-sustaining jobs in a growing field. This program is the first of its kind in the nation, making it so that Pennsylvanians can stay warm, safe, and dry in homes they can afford. This program does three things:
- It provides up to $50,000 to repair, weatherize, and adapt homes across Pennsylvania.
- It allocates resources for support staff to help people access the assistance they need in the order they need it.
- It funds training and pre-apprenticeship programs and provides stipends to trainees to build up our workforce and keep our workers, and the jobs they do, local.
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OEJ welcomes your suggestions or inquiries about our work, programs and/or policies. We also want to hear your ideas for newsletter topics/stories. Please contact us at RA-EPOEJ@pa.gov, or directly:
Statewide Strategic Coordinator
Winnie Okello
(717) 772-5639
wokello@pa.gov
Eastern Regional Coordinator
Amani Reid
(717) 783-1086
amreid@pa.gov
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Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection, 400 Market Street Harrisburg, PA 17101
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