f/EPA
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ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE
United States Office of Enforcement and June 2006
Environmental Protection Agency Compliance Assurance
Office of Environmental Justice (2201 A)
http://www.epa.qov/compliance/environmentaliustice/qrants/ei smqrants.html
Environmental Justice
Small Grants Program
FACT SHEET
Background
The EPA's Office of Environmental Justice (OEJ)
established the Environmental Justice Small Grants
Program (EJSG) in fiscal year (FY) 1994. The purpose
of this grant program is to support and empower
communities that are working on local solutions to local
environmental and/or public health issues. Summaries
of all the EJSG projects funded in FY 2005 and prior
years are available on the OEJ website
http://www.epa.qov/compliance/environmentaliustice/qr
ants/ei smqrants.html. Below is a summary of the
number of grants and total program funding for every
year since 1995.
This year, the EJSG Program is designed to assist
recipients in building collaborative partnerships that will
help them understand and address the environmental
and/or public health issues in their communities.
Successful collaborative partnerships with other
stakeholders involve well-designed strategic plans to
build, maintain and sustain the partnerships, and to
work towards addressing the local environmental
and/or public health issues.
Request for Applications
On February 1, 2006, OEJ released the Request for
Applications (RFA) for the EJSG Program. The EJSG
Program is of a national scope, and therefore, the
purpose of the RFA was to make one grant award per
region. The RFA closed on March 31, 2006; however,
the EJSG program was cancelled and no awards were
made because OEJ did not receive enough applications
to meet its national program objectives.
On June 22, 2006, a new announcement for the
EJSG will be released. Significant changes to the RFA
have been made in an effort to solicit more applications.
Some of these changes include:
• The definition of "eligible applicant"
• The contents of the application package
• The format of the workplan
• The Threshold Eligibility Criteria
Any organization that applied under the earlier RFA
must submit a new application.
Eligible Applicants
An eligible applicant MUST BE either:
(1) a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization as designated by
the Internal Revenue Service; OR
(2) a non-profit organization, recognized by the state,
territory, commonwealth, or tribe in which it is located.
In addition, an eligible applicant must be able to
demonstrate that it has worked directly with, or provided
services to, the affected community. An "affected
community," for the purposes of this assistance
agreement program, is a community that is
disproportionately impacted by environmental harms and
The New Request for Applications period will be
open from June 22, 2006 to 11:59pm October 23,
2006.
Year
Total Funding
Number of grants
1995
$3,000,000
170
1996
$2,800,000
152
1997
$2,700,000
139
1998
$2,500,000
134
1999
$1,490,000
95
2000
$899,000
61
2001
$1,300,000
88
2002
$1,113,000
74
2003
$930,000
55
2004
$423,545
17
2005
$625,000
25
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risks and has a local environmental and/or public health
issue that is identified in the proposal.
A "non-profit organization," means any corporation,
trust, association, cooperative, or other organization
that:
(1) is operated primarily for scientific, educational,
service, charitable, or similar purposes in the public
interest;
(2) is not organized primarily for profit; and
(3) uses its net proceeds to maintain, improve, and/or
expand its operations.
The focus of this assistance agreement program is to
build the capacity of community-based organizations to
address environmental and/or public health issues at
the local level. Therefore, for this assistance
agreement program, the term "non-profit organization"
EXCLUDES:
• colleges and universities;
• hospitals;
• state and local governments and federally-
recognized Indian tribal governments;
• quasi-governmental entities (e.g., water districts,
utilities)*;
• national-, multi-state-, or state-wide- organizations
with chapters;
• non-profit organizations that engage in lobbying
activities as defined in Section 3 of the Lobbying
Disclosure Act of 1995; and
• those non-profit organizations which are excluded
from coverage under paragraph 5 of OMB Circular
A-122 (see OMB Circular A-122, paragraph 5 at
http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/circulars/a122/a12
2 2004.html
* 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.
For More Information
If you would like more information about the EJ Small
Grants Program, please call the Office of Environmental
Justice's 24-hour hotline (1-800-962-6215) or visit the
website at:
http://www.epa.qov/compliance/environmentaliustice/qra
nts/ei-cps-q rants.html
EPA's Commitment to Environmental
Justice
On November 4, 2005, United States Environmental
Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Stephen L.
Johnson issued a memorandum reaffirming EPA's
commitment to environmental justice for all people,
regardless of race, color, national origin, or income.
Environmental justice means not only protecting
human health and the environment for everyone, but
also ensuring that all people are treated fairly and are
given the opportunity to participate meaningfully in
the development, implementation, and enforcement
of environmental laws, regulations, and policies.
Because minority and/or low-income communities
frequently may be exposed disproportionately to
environmental harms and risks, EPA works to protect
these and other burdened communities from adverse
human health and environmental effects of its
programs, consistent with existing environmental and
civil rights laws and regulations, as well as through
the implementation of Executive Order 12898
("Federal Actions to Address Environmental Justice in
Minority Populations and/or Low-Income
Populations," Feb. 11, 1994).
The memorandum identified eight national
environmental justice priorities and directed the
integration of environmental justice considerations
into EPA's planning and budgeting processes,
including into the Agency's Strategic Plan for Fiscal
Years 2006-2011. This cooperative agreement
program (Program) focuses on one of those eight
priorities, which is the use of collaborative problem-
solving to address local environmental and/or public
health issues. Each remaining priority involves a
specific issue, including: (1) reducing asthma
attacks; (2) reducing exposure to air toxics; (3)
increasing compliance with regulations; (4) reducing
the incidence of elevated blood lead levels; (5)
ensuring that fish and shellfish are safe to eat; (6)
ensuring that water is safe to drink; and (7)
revitalizing contaminated sites (please note that this
Program cannot be used to fund Brownfields
projects).
EPA will continue to fully implement its programs,
policies, and activities to ensure that they do not
adversely affect populations with critical
environmental and/or public health issues, including
minority and/or low-income communities.
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