EPA Awards $4.6M in Research Grants to Quantify and Mitigate Emissions from Municipal Solid Waste Landfills

WASHINGTON – Today, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced $4.6 million in grant funding to five institutions for research to quantify and mitigate emissions from municipal solid waste landfills.

Across the world, communities generate residential, commercial, and industrial waste that goes to municipal landfills, which generate gas as the waste degrades. About half of landfill gas emissions are methane, which contribute significantly to climate change. Landfills also emit other gases that can adversely affect human health and the environment. Due to the significant health and climate impacts of these emissions, EPA is committed to developing and identifying better technologies for measuring and mitigating them.

“Methane is a potent climate pollutant, which is why improving our understanding of the impacts of methane and other pollution from landfills is crucial to our efforts to address climate change,” said Chris Frey, Assistant Administrator for EPA’s Office of Research and Development. “EPA is investing in landfill emissions research to improve the scientific foundation for decisions to protect people and the planet. Results from this research will have a global impact on informing approaches to reduce methane emissions and more sustainably manage landfills.”

Historically, there has been a limited ability to understand and quantify landfill gas emissions. These include hazardous air pollutants like benzene, odor nuisance compounds like hydrogen sulfide (H2S), and contaminants of emerging concern like per- and poly-fluoroalkyl substances (PFAS). While EPA has developed several landfill emissions estimation tools for public use, lack of quantitative data relating to landfills, how they are managed, and environmental conditions that affect their emissions has limited the accuracy of these tools. 

The projects announced today will help advance methods for monitoring and quantifying landfill emissions of methane and other pollutants, evaluate strategies for reducing these emissions, and improve understanding of how municipal solid waste landfill emissions may change due to future climatic conditions, including extreme weather events. Grantees will use a variety of sensing techniques and modeling approaches to compare current landfill technologies and provide a basis for the future of landfill emission mitigation and management.

The following institutions are receiving awards: 

• University of Delaware (Newark, Del.) to quantify errors in measurement technologies, guide future technology application (e.g., optimal sensor placement), evaluate landfill management practices, and more accurately model and predict landfill emissions.
• University of Miami (Miami) to improve and demonstrate the use of lower-cost air quality sensors to map pollution distribution, estimate emission fluxes, and evaluate strategies to reduce methane emissions.
• University of Wisconsin (Madison, Wis.) to demonstrate and standardize modeling and mapping methods for quantifying emissions of methane and other health impacting gases released from landfills.
• University of Colorado, Boulder (Boulder, Colo.) to assess the performance and feasibility tradeoffs of integrating measurements across platforms to assess emissions and mitigation of methane and volatile organic compounds (VOCs) from landfills.
• University of California, Berkeley (Berkeley, Calif.) to develop and demonstrate an innovative approach to more cost effectively monitor and quantify emissions and to quantify the benefits from a range of mitigation and landfill management methodologies.

Learn more about the funded recipients. Learn more about EPA research grants.

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EPA and partners provide over $3 million for 14 projects in Massachusetts coastal communities

BOSTON (Nov. 1, 2023) – The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced the award of $3,339,177 in new funding for southeast Massachusetts communities and new technical assistance and partnerships with local organizations working for clean water and healthy coastal ecosystems. More than $1 million of this new funding is through President Biden's November 2021 Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL), which is providing funds for projects across the country to improve climate resiliency and address infrastructure upgrades. The remaining funds are  through annual Congressional appropriations to EPA's Southeast New England Program (SNEP).

In addition to the BIL-funded projects, SNEP is providing $1,494,685 in grants through the SNEP Watershed Implementation Grant (SWIG) program; $298,287 under a competitive research grant; $300,000 under an Inter-Agency agreement with the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS); $250,000 to the Buzzards Bay National Estuary Program; and direct technical assistance to three municipalities.

"Massachusetts' senior elected officials continue to do a fantastic job crafting great solutions for the challenges facing our coastal waters – and this funding is a result of their hard work and creativity," said EPA New England Regional Administrator David W. Cash. "These projects announced today will advance EPA's and the Commonwealth's commitment to investing in underserved communities.

"Massachusetts communities rely on clean water and healthy ecosystems," said Senator Markey. "Using funds from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and annual appropriations, communities from Nantucket to Worcester will be able to improve stormwater management, prevent flooding, and restore critical habitats and fish passages. I thank the EPA for these resources, which will deliver high-impact projects to protect the health of our waterways for both our fish friends and all of us who live, work, and play along these iconic waters."

"From investments for projects to help restore our wetland habitats to projects to clean our waters and support climate change adaptation, this federal funding is fantastic news for Massachusetts," said U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren. "I'll continue fighting for federal investments in green infrastructure to help tackle the climate crisis and support healthy, thriving coastal ecosystems."

"The Southeast New England Program continues to provide vital and targeted funding to dozens of water quality improvement projects in our region," said Congressman Bill Keating.  "These projects are critical to the overall improvement of the health and water quality of our communities' estuaries and embayments. The research and hands-on experience generated by SNEP projects have advanced water quality science and have further cemented this region as the nation's laboratory for water quality. I'm proud of the work that SNEP has accomplished since Senator Jack Reed and I worked together to start the program a decade ago and I am proud to see this increased investment resulting from the passage of President Biden's Bipartisan Infrastructure Law."

Bipartisan Infrastructure Law Projects:

Lily Pond Park (Nantucket Land Bank) ($600,000): The project will install nature-based and traditional stormwater infrastructure to improve water quality in the pond, paired with improvements to provide America's with Disabilities Act accessible pathways, boardwalks, seating, and signage. The project will also expand the Land Bank's existing master planning process to include more areas of the watershed.

Mass Audubon Society ($465,965): The project will cover planning, permitting and implementation of salt marsh restoration practices at several sites around Dartmouth, MA to facilitate marsh migration and restore tidal hydrology. This effort will be paired with community education, engagement, and workshops to help the public understand the importance of salt marsh to coastal habitat and resilience.

SNEP Annual (Base) Congressional Appropriations Projects

SNEP Watershed Implementation Grants Projects

• City of West Bridgewater ($284,500): The project will enable design and permitting of a Nature-Like Fishway to replace the existing poor condition fish ladder along the Town River at West Bridgewater's War Memorial Park. The river supports fish runs into Lake Nippenicket, one of the largest natural lakes in eastern MA, and Hockomock Swamp, the largest vegetated freshwater wetland system in MA. The current fish ladder and dam pose risks to fish migration and downstream areas.

• Mass Audubon ($217,800): The project team will partner with the City of Worcester and others to advance design and engineering to improve and restore flood storage, floodplain reconnection, wetland habitat, and water quality, as well as offer new and enhanced recreational and educational opportunities for nearby Environmental Justice communities.

• Buzzards Bay Coalition ($499,730): The project represents a unique opportunity to invest in the restoration of Buzzards Bay's most negatively impacted coastal stream flowing through the center of its most densely developed and disadvantaged communities. It will improve water quality and support climate change adaptation by implementing a distributed network of Green Infrastructure (GI) practices to maximize stormwater capture, promote groundwater recharge, and build system resilience. It also seeks to maximize the social, environmental, and health related co-benefits of GI by removing unnecessary impervious cover and restoring native plants and trees to improve local air quality, increase access to green space, and mitigate urban heat island effects.

• Nantucket Conservation Foundation ($255,000): The project will ultimately restore 40 acres of former cranberry bog to self-sustaining natural wetlands and integrate the restored wetlands into the broader landscape of freshwater wetlands, hardwood forests, and upland grasslands. This  funding will enable initial restoration of about 10.5 acres to diverse wetland habitats.

• MA Department of Conservation and Recreation ($100,000): The project will consist of pilot design and installation of an "embankment filter," a filtering stormwater control measure that can be installed on slopes that are typically considered too constrained for conventional stormwater controls. The project will develop implementation documents including standard details, materials and construction specifications, and methods for estimating pollutant reduction using the EPA stormwater Performance Curves. These will be shared with the greater New England stormwater community so this measure can be more readily incorporated in other locations. This project exemplifies how approaches from the SNEP Stormwater Retrofit Manual can be realized on actual sites to improve water quality in constrained areas.

• Pocasset Water Quality Coalition ($37,655): The project will educate property owners to the causes and effects of stormwater runoff in Hen Cove and Wings Neck Inlet and engage the community in action both at the community level with rain gardens on town property and at the residential level with green infrastructure to restore the health of Hen Cove, Wings Neck Inlet, and other nearby bays for safe swimming and boating and return the eel grass and shellfish beds to their original levels. Through community volunteer events and interactive workshops, this project shifts the work of PWQC from policy into infrastructure and permanent, sustainable action.

  Competitive Research Project

• Cape Cod Commission ($298,527): The project will create a model for lake and pond water quality throughout the SNEP region using satellite imagery-based techniques. The model will incorporate historic water quality data as well as data collected under this grant.

Support for the Buzzards Bay National Estuary Program

• The Buzzards Bay NEP ($250,000): The grant will further work under their Comprehensive Conservation and Management Plan. Buzzards Bay National Estuary Program receives annual funding to assist in implementing elements of their Comprehensive Conservation and Management Plan (CCMP) aligned with SNEP goals.

Interagency Agreement

• U.S. Geological Survey ($300,000): USGS will continue collaboration with EPA on ground and surface water monitoring in support of innovative/alternative septic system installations in Marston's Mills MA (funded by EPA's Office of Research and Development) and also study the effect of sewering on groundwater nitrogen concentration in Wickford, RI and Falmouth, MA, though sampling and modeling.

Technical Assistance through SNEP Network

• Town of Swansea - Swansea will receive technical assistance for improving water quality in the Cole River Estuary by mitigating untreated stormwater and fertilizer runoff. The Southeast Region Planning Economic Development District and Save the Bay will partner with the Town on this project.

• Town of Westport - Westport will receive technical assistance to enhance stormwater treatment by improving an existing drainage ditch and eroded basin. Kim Groff Consulting and the Southeast Region Planning Economic Development District will partner with the Town on this project.

• Town of Millville - Millville will receive technical assistance in developing a prioritization framework to help the town prioritize stormwater sites identified in their Hazard Mitigation Plan, conduct preliminary site visits to the top priority sites, and develop a conceptual design for a stormwater retrofit that will be presented to the town selectboard. The Blackstone Watershed Collaborative will partner with the Town on this project.

What others are saying:

"This project will have a lasting positive impact on the ecological health of Buttonwood Park," said Mayor Jon Mitchell. "I want to thank our federal delegation, the Coalition of Buzzards Bay, and the Healey Administration for their support of this critical green infrastructure initiative."

"SWIG will provide over $1.4 million toward high-priority restoration projects in Massachusetts, out of a total of $3.2 million in funding this year. It's also gratifying to see that much of the other SNEP funding being announced will support projects that were initiated with prior SWIG grants," said Tom Ardito, Director of SNEP Watershed Implementation Grants (SWIG).

"Over the past four years, the SNEP Network has worked with over 70 Southeast New England municipalities, tribes and organizations on projects and helped 8 communities secure over $2M to advance their climate resilient projects," said SNEP Network Director Martha Sheils. "In this fifth year, we are excited to continue our capacity building efforts by awarding technical assistance to three Massachusetts communities, two of which will participate in our popular Stormwater Planning Series designed to guide communities through developing a conceptual design for a nature-based stormwater retrofit tailored to their community needs."

Background

In 2012, Congress charged EPA with conserving and restoring southeast New England's coastal environment, and in 2014 began providing funding to develop a Southeast New England Program. As EPA's pass-through organization, Restore America's Estuaries is now working with EPA to manage the watershed grants program, funding local organizations that are restoring clean water and healthy coastal ecosystems. The New England Environmental Finance Center serves as the pass-through organization for the related SNEP Network, which offers free technical assistance to communities throughout the southeast New England region.

For more about EPA's Southeast New England Program, SNEP Watershed Grants, and the SNEP Network see: www.epa.gov/snep and  www.snepgrants.org and www.snepnetwork.org.

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EPA Announces the Small Communities Big Challenges: Rural Environmental Health Needs Competition

WASHINGTON – Today, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced the launch of the Small Communities, Big Challenges: Rural Environmental Health Needs Competition, which invites local governments to demonstrate innovative strategies for engaging with rural communities to collaboratively identify their environmental health needs. The competition will expand community engagement, stimulate new partnerships with local communities and increase understanding of rural environmental health needs to help protect human health and the environment.

“Rural communities across the country face unique environmental health issues,” said Chris Frey, Assistant Administrator of EPA’s Office of Research and Development. “This competition will highlight innovative strategies for engaging and collaborating with these communities to identify and understand their environmental public health concerns and needs.”

Eligible participants for this competition include local government organizations, such as city and county health departments, local environmental agencies, and utility providers. Applicants are asked to collaborate with rural communities to identify where enhanced scientific understanding could help combat environmental health issues the community faces.

Ten submissions will receive a cash award of $25,000 for a grand total of $250,000. Additionally, five of these winners will receive a one-year membership to the National Environmental Health Association, which will provide them access to education, credentials, and an advocacy platform within the environmental health workforce.

The competition is a partnership between EPA, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, the Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies, the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials, the National Association of County and City Health Officials, and the National Environmental Health Association.

The Small Communities, Big Challenges: Rural Environmental Health Needs Competition is now open and will close on January 31, 2024, at 11:59 p.m. ET. Interested applicants will have the opportunity to attend the informational webinar held on November 29, 2023, to ask questions and connect with subject matter experts.

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EPA Launches New Community-based Initiative to Help People Access Unprecedented Resources for Local Climate and Environmental Justice Solutions

WASHINGTON – Today, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced the launch of the Community, Equity & Resiliency initiative, a groundbreaking effort to help communities across the nation navigate EPA’s Inflation Reduction Act investments and other new funding opportunities made possible by President Biden’s Investing in America agenda. Through this new initiative, EPA’s Office of Air and Radiation and Office of Environmental Justice and External Civil Rights will facilitate community-driven partnerships and provide a space for communities to learn, connect, and cultivate ideas on how to access the historic resources, especially in low-income and disadvantaged communities.

“Thanks to President Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act, we now have the largest investments in climate action and environmental justice in U.S. history,” said EPA Administrator Michael S. Regan. “The Community, Equity & Resiliency initiative will provide a roadmap to help communities navigate the Inflation Reduction Act and other new Investing in America funding opportunities from EPA, as we work to meet people where they are.”

As part of the initiative, EPA will host live virtual and in-person events, including panel discussions and fireside chats featuring environmental leaders and their peers, to help community-based organizations, their community partners, and potential grant applicants navigate funding opportunities. These engagements are designed to spark ideas on how to take advantage of Investing in America programs while taking into account each community’s unique context when confronting the climate crisis and advancing environmental and climate justice. EPA’s new Community, Equity & Resiliency website offers information on multiple funding opportunities and resources to ensure community-driven partnerships can inspire meaningful change in their communities. To learn more about the effort, visit EPA’s new Community, Equity & Resiliency webpage.

National Virtual Open House, November 6-14

On November 6, 2023, EPA will kick off the Community, Equity & Resiliency initiative with a National Virtual Open House that is open to the public. This six-day event will include a series of virtual panels and fireside chats featuring prominent environmental leaders and peers discussing their ideas to overcome environmental pollution and climate change challenges through funding opportunities that are available through the Inflation Reduction Act and other programs under the President’s Investing in America agenda. Panel and fireside chat topics will include climate change in rural communities, green jobs, electric vehicle infrastructure, technical assistance and more.

Register for the National Virtual Open House

Upcoming Regional Roadshows

Starting this winter, EPA will also host in-person, community-based Regional Roadshow events. These will provide opportunities for community leaders to develop or leverage existing community-based partnerships and dream and cultivate ideas on the Inflation Reduction Act and other new Investing in America programs. More details on the Regional Roadshow will be available soon.

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