r/EFA
United States Office of Enforcement and October 2009
Environmental Protection Agency Compliance Assurance
Office of Environmental Justice (2201 A)
http://www.epa.gov/compliance/environmentaliustice/grants/
State Environmental Justice
Cooperative Agreements
FACT SHEET
Background
Objective
The Office of Environmental Justice's (OEJ) first efforts
to assist States in achieving environmental justice goals
and objectives began with the States and Tribal
Environmental Justice (STEJ) Grants Program pilot
projects which were developed and awarded during
fiscal year 1998-2001. These pilot projects were initially
directed to assist States and Tribal governments in the
development of environmental justice considerations
and approaches in their environmental programs. The
State Environmental Justice Cooperative Agreement
(SEJCA) Initiative is a step beyond the pilot grants. The
objective is to further OEJ's commitment to advance
the integration of environmental justice goals into State
government environmental programs, policies, and
activities, as defined by EPA's strategic plan for fiscal
year 2006-2011.
Key Elements of the State Cooperative Agreement
Initiative are:
• State strategies, programs and activities in
place for identifying, developing, planning
and working on local environmental issues
with communities, for educating and
empowering the community concerning
environmental justice issues, building
consensus, and setting community priorities.
• Collaboration with other stakeholders (e.g.,
community-based organizations,
environmental groups, businesses, industry,
Federal, Tribal, State and local governments,
and academic institutions) to realize their
goals and objectives.
Year
2009
Total Funding
$800,000
Number of grants
5
For More Information
For more information please visit:
http://www.epa.gov/compliance/environmentaliustice/gr
ants/index, htm
The purpose of this new cooperative agreement initiative
is specifically to support/produce model State activities
that lead to measurable environmental or public health
results in communities disproportionately burdened by
environmental harms and risks by leveraging or utilizing
the existing resources or assets of state agencies.
Goals of the SEJCA initiative are to:
• achieve measurable and meaningful
environmental and/or public health results in
communities;
• build broad and robust, results-oriented
partnerships, particularly with community
organizations within affected area;
• pilot activities in specific communities that create
models, which can be expanded or replicated in
other geographic areas;
• strengthen the development and implementation
of specific approaches to achieve environmental
justice.
Projects should leverage: (1) state information; (2)
state leadership; (3) state results; (4) relationships
between delegated programs and state
environmental justice policies, and (5) state targeting
of disproportionately burdened areas.
Eligible Applicants
An eligible applicant's had to be one of the following
types of entities:
(1) a state, U.S territory; commonwealth; or
(2) an instrumentality of the state.
The following entities were ineligible:
• Tribal governments or entities of tribal
government
• Quasi-governmental entities (e.g., water
districts, utilities)*
'Generally, a quasi-governmental entity is one that: (1) has a close
association with the government agency, but is not considered a part of
the government agency; (2) was created by the government agency,
but is exempt from certain legal and administrative requirements
imposed on government agencies; or (3) was not created by the
government agency but performs a public purpose and is significantly
supported financially by the government agency.
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