A Riverside County-based Native American tribe and a nonprofit rural poverty advocacy group received state grants totaling nearly $100,000 for efforts to enhance pollution monitoring and drinking water access, it was announced Thursday.
The California Environmental Protection Agency announced the dispersals as part of its latest round of awards from the Environmental Justice Small Grants Program.
The Morongo Band of Mission Indians, headquartered in Cabazon, was designated to receive $48,130 for a project aimed at expanding particulate matter sampling using high-volume air samplers, according to CalEPA.
The objective is for the tribe to better gauge community health risks from pollutant exposure, officials said. A large segment of the tribal population resides on reservation land near heavily traveled Interstate 10 in the Banning Pass.
A $50,000 grant was additionally approved for the Coachella-based Leadership Counsel for Justice & Accountability, which works, in part, to advocate for widening public investment opportunities in the eastern Coachella Valley.
According to CalEPA, the funds designated for the nonprofit are intended to support policy initiatives that promote improvements to “drinking water access and air quality.”
A total of 84 individual grants were approved statewide, rounding out to about $4 million, officials said.
“This year’s 84 environmental justice grants are truly inspiring,” California Secretary for Environmental Protection Jared Blumenfeld said. “These community-driven projects will have a significant impact in every region of our state.”
The grant program was authorized in 2002 by Assembly Bill 2312. Nearly $11 million has been awarded for close to 300 projects since the program started, according to CalEPA.
More information is available at calepa.ca.gov/envjustice/funding/smallgrants/2022-environmental-justice-small-grants-project-summaries/.