The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Great Lakes National Program Office announced the selection of four grantees to receive more than $35 million to run Great Lakes Environmental Justice Grant Programs (GLEJGP) throughout the Great Lakes basin. Through these newly created GLEJGPs, made possible by President Biden’s Investing in America Agenda, each selectee will develop and oversee their own subgrant competition that will fund environmental protection and restoration projects that safeguard our nation’s largest fresh surface water resources and benefit underserved and overburdened communities throughout the Great Lakes Basin.
The Great Lakes Environmental Justice Grant Program is part of the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative (GLRI), the largest investment in the Great Lakes in two decades, which received $1 billion in funding through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. The following organizations have been selected to receive funding through today’s announcement.
- Restore America’s Estuaries was selected to receive $19,999,976 to develop and implement a Great Lakes Environmental Justice Grant Program that, with the support of Great Lakes partners, will serve the entire Great Lakes Basin.
- Buffalo Niagara Waterkeeper, Inc. was selected to receive $5,633,581 to develop and implement the Western New York Environmental Justice Grant Program for underserved communities in Lake Erie and Niagara River’s watershed.
- Ohio Lake Erie Commission was selected to receive $5,805,006 to develop and implement the Lake Erie Environmental Justice Grant Program for underserved communities in Ohio’s Lake Erie watershed.
- Southeast Michigan Council of Governments was selected to receive $4,200,000 to develop and implement the Advancing Environmental Quality of Life in Underserved Communities grant program for underserved communities in Southeast Michigan.
For additional information, please see EPA’s full news release.