Slaughter Announces $303,000 EPA Grant to Rochester's Center for Environmental Information

Center was Chosen Out of a Field of 132 Applicants Nationwide

Washington, DC - Rep. Louise M. Slaughter (D-Fairport), Ranking Member of the House Rules Committee, is pleased to announce that the Environmental Protection Agency has awarded $303,000 to the Center for Environmental Information in Rochester. The funding, administered by the EPA's Community Action for a Renewed Environment (CARE) program, will help the Center to further its work in reducing the exposure of local citizens to hazardous pollutants.

"I'm delighted that the EPA has recognized the impressive and greatly valuable work of the Center," Rep. Slaughter said. "By helping to eliminate the causes and consequences of pollution, organizations like the Center will continue to improve and lengthen the lives of local residents, and to make our region an even more desirable place to raise a family," she added.

The Center will use the EPA's funding to pursue a multi-faceted approach to dealing with pollutants in the Rochester region:

• It will work with the city's Neighbors Building Neighborhoods program to increase knowledge of toxics and their effects in at-risk communities.

• Efforts to reduce the affects of mobile air toxics on urban school grounds and surrounding neighborhoods will be furthered by retrofitting seven diesel refrigerator trucks owned and operated by the Rochester City School District.

• The CARE grant will help create new community-based mobile air toxics education and reduction programs.

• Work will be done to identify and provide pollution prevention technical assistance to small industries and businesses that are sources of air toxics.

• The Coalition to Prevent Lead Poisoning will be helped with its work matching property owners housing children under six with available funding sources for lead remediation.

• Finally, the Rochester CARE Collaborative Working Group will continue indefinitely as an important collection of diverse interests that identifies and addresses unmet needs regarding toxics in Greater Rochester.

BACKGROUND

The grant comes as part of the Community Action for a Renewed Environment (CARE) grant program. The Center for Environmental Information (CEI) in Rochester was selected for a Level II CARE grant, which provides from $150,000 to $325,000 to communities with existing collaborative partnerships and action plans for pollution reduction to aid them in the implementation of their projects.

For more information on the CARE program, click here.