EPA Publishes Brownfield Grant FAQs and Assessment Checklist

A summary of differences between FY14 and FY13 Grant Guidelines is found in the FAQ document listed below. EPA has also included an Assessment Guideline Checklist.

• Frequently Asked Questions (PDF) (53 pp, 847K)
• FY2014 Assessment Guideline Checklist (PDF) (11 pp, 552K)

EPA Brownfields Grant guidelines have been released

The EPA Brownfields Assessment, Revolving Loan and Cleanup (ARC) grant guidelines have been released. They have a due date of January 22nd, 2014.
 

FY14 Guidelines for Brownfields Assessment Grants

FY14 Guidelines for Brownfields Revolving Loan Fund (RLF) Grants

FY14 Guidelines for Brownfields Cleanup Grants

For more information, go to the EPA web page listed below:

http://www.epa.gov/oswer/grants-funding.htm

Briefing Paper: Defying the Odds: Sustainability in Small and Rural Places

This briefing paper offers short case studies and lessons derived from a minority of small communities who made strides protecting the environment despite the odds against them. First, using the data from the 2010 ICMA sustainability survey,[i] they describe the problem – that smaller and poorer municipalities are less likely to enact sustainability policies. Next, they present seven brief case studies of municipalities that defied the odds and implemented various sustainability policies. They conclude with lessons about the actions local leaders in these places took and their motivations.
Acknowledgements: Research on the case studies presented in this paper was made possible in part with funding from the USDA National Institute for Food and Agriculture grant # 2011-68006-30793.

Webinar: Tips for Successful Brownfield Grant Proposals - Dec 4, 2013 2:00 PM - 3:15 PM EST

Join NALGEP, the Center for Creative Land Recycling (CCLR), and the KSU Technical Assistance to Brownfields Program for a webinar get the latest advice on preparing a successful application. With increasing competition for EPA brownfield grants, applicants need to know how to set their applications above the rest, and previously successful applicants have to know how to adapt and improve their methods for developing grant applications. This webinar will walk listeners through basic (but surprisingly often overlooked) advice for applicants, as well as new changes in grant guidelines, and funding trends.

Webinar speakers will include some of the nation’s leading brownfield experts who have been successful applicants, technical assistant providers, and recent reviewers of ARC applications. Speakers will provide special tips for small and rural communities and lend their insight into common mistakes and special advantages for these applicants.

Click HERE to register.

EPA Technical Assistance - Building Blocks for Sustainable Communities

Smart Growth America and Global Green USA are soliciting applications for technical assistance, which is available under grants EPA awarded to these two organizations through the Office of Sustainable Communities' Building Blocks for Sustainable Communities grant program. (Listen to the November 6 webinar about both offerings.)

Global Green USA's technical assistance is based on the LEED for Neighborhood Development standard, which provides a nationally recognized method for creating neighborhoods that are walkable, bikeable, resource-efficient, and equitable. At the conclusion of the assistance, the team will provide recommendations for both physical and policy changes that can enhance neighborhood sustainability.
View the application.  

Applications are due to Global Green by Friday December 20, 2013, 6 PM PST (3 PM EST).

Smart Growth America is offering 12 different technical assistance workshops:

• Implementing smart growth 101
• Planning for economic and fiscal health
• Regional planning for small communities
• Sustainable land use code audit
• Smart growth zoning codes for small cities
• Complete streets
• Walkability workshop/audit
• Transportation performance measurement
• Parking audit
• Implementing transit-oriented development 101
• Cool planning: local strategies to slow climate change
• Using LEED-ND to accelerate the development of sustainable communities

View the application. Applications are due to Smart Growth America by Friday, December 6, 2013, 5:00 PM EST.

Additional assistance may be available from EPA and other grantees in 2014.

Rural Health Network Development Planning Funding Opportunity (HealthFields)

The Health Resources and Services Administration’s Rural Health Network Development Planning Funding Opportunity was recently released. Deadline is January 16, 2014.

The purpose of this grant program is to assist in the planning and development of an integrated healthcare network.  This grant program brings together key parts of a rural health care delivery system, particularly those entities that may not have collaborated in the past under a formal relationship, to work together to establish and improve local capacity and coordination of care.  By working together, rural health providers and organizations can achieve efficiencies, increase capacity and improve the quality of essential health care services over a give geographic area.  

To be eligible, the lead applicant organization must be a rural non-profit or rural public entity that represents a consortium/network of three or more health care providers. Federally-recognized tribal entities are eligible to apply as long as they are located in a rural area.  The applicant organization must be located in a non-metropolitan county or in a rural census tract of a metropolitan county and all services must be provided in a non-metropolitan county or rural census tract.

Applicant organizations with headquarters located in a metropolitan county that serve non-metropolitan or metropolitan counties are not eligible solely because of the areas they serve. In addition, applicant organizations located in a metropolitan county with branches in a non-metropolitan county are not eligible to apply if they are eligible only because of the areas or populations they serve.

http://www.hrsa.gov/grants/apply/assistance/ruralnetworks/index.html

WEBINAR (Nov. 21st): Empowering Low-Income Communities to take advantage of MAP-21 Funds

On Thursday, November 21st, from 2-3 p.m. Eastern, the Safe Routes to School National Partnership is hosting a free webinar:

Empowering Low-Income Communities to take advantage of MAP-21 Funds

REGISTER HERE:
https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/8367894069511939842

More street scale projects can be built in lower-income communities and communities of color by training advocates nationwide on how to access existing funding for pedestrian and bicycle projects, including the new MAP-21 funds. Speakers will provide perspective on the importance of MAP-21 funding in underserved communities, overcoming disparity and violence and increasing health benefits through street scale improvements, and identifying tools and best practices for implementation on the regional, state and local levels.

SPEAKERS:

• Introduction by Congressman Steve Cohen, 9th District, Tennessee
• Keith Benjamin, Street Scale Campaign Manager, Safe Routes to School National Partnership
• Mandela Barnes, State Representative, 11th Assembly District, Wisconsin
• Jamecca Marshall, Policy Manager, Advancement Project
• Chigozie Udemgba, Safe Routes Program Manager at Mississippi State Department of Health

To register for this free webinar, click on this link:
https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/8367894069511939842

This free webinar is part of the Voices for Healthy Kids: Active Places initiative to advance policies that support healthy community design, shared use and street-scale policies in underserved communities and schools. The Active Places initiative is focused on increasing access to parks, playgrounds, walking paths, bike lanes and other opportunities to create active places and increase physical activity.

Voices for Healthy Kids is a national advocacy initiative focused on uniting the movement to prevent childhood obesity. A collaboration between the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and American Heart Association, the initiative seeks to help reverse the nation’s childhood obesity epidemic by 2015 by ensuring children have access to healthy foods and beverages, as well as safe opportunities for physical activity. Learn more about the childhood obesity epidemic and how you can help turn it around at www.voicesforhealthykids.org.

Webinar: Using GIS Tools to Analyze, Compute, and Predict Pollution, Session I - Exposure Assessment in the Field and Links to Human Health - November 12, 2013, 1:00PM-3:00PM EST

Using GIS Tools to Analyze, Compute, and Predict Pollution, Session I - Exposure Assessment in the Field and Links to Human Health - November 12, 2013, 1:00PM-3:00PM EST

 Preterm birth, the leading cause of neonatal mortality in the U.S., may be associated with exposure to legacy and emergent contaminants in the environment. Puerto Rico has one of the highest rates of preterm birth, as well as density of Superfund Sites in the United States. As part of NIEHS's Superfund Research Program, the Puerto Rico Testsite for Exploring Contamination Threats (PROTECT) is exploring the relationships between exposure to hazardous chemicals and preterm birth in northern Puerto Rico. Particular attention is given to chlorinated volatile organic compounds and phthalates, although biomarkers of phenols, metals, and parabens exposure are also being explored as precursors of preterm birth. Identification of associations between contaminants and preterm birth requires collection and integration of complex multi-disciplinary datasets. The first presentation will describe the data management system being developed by PROTECT to integrate, manage, analyze, and relate environmental, demographic, exposure biomarkers, and birth outcome data. The discussion will center on the applicability of the system, built on a foundation of Earthsoft's EQUIS?, to assess the extent of groundwater and tap water contamination, identify other modes of exposure, define patterns in biomarkers of exposure and birth outcomes from an ongoing birth cohort, perform relational queries, and map spatial patterns that can be directly visualized with ArcGIS. Toxic metals are widespread environmental contaminants that are known human carcinogens and/or developmental toxicants. The levels of metals in private well water are federally unregulated. The second presenter will describe two studies that used GIS mapping in North Carolina to examine 1) the spatial patterns of arsenic levels private wells, and 2) the association between private well levels of arsenic, cadmium, manganese, and lead and birth defects prevalence. The studies used a statewide database of private well contaminants collected by the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services Division of Public Health as well as data from the North Carolina Birth Defects Monitoring Program. For more information and to register, see http://clu-in.org/live .

Building Blocks for Sustainable Communities: Webinar Nov. 6

Join a webinar by EPA grantee Smart Growth America on free technical assistance available to communities through EPA’s Building Blocks for Sustainable Communities program. Learn about the assistance and how to apply on Wednesday, November 6, 2 p.m. Eastern.

• View the webinar registration page.
• Learn about Building Blocks for Sustainable Communities.