Listen:
Disadvantaged areas in the Tampa Bay area are set to receive money for environmental improvements because of a series of measures passed during the Biden administration.
These grants provide a wide range of benefits promoting clean energy and clean buildings. Direct grants going straight to Tampa and Hillsborough County are focused on repairing water and wastewater systems. Environmental Protection Administrator Michael Regen helped create the grants.
“There’s opportunity to apply for wastewater dollars, there’s opportunity to apply for EJ grants that tackle air quality issues, there are multiple opportunities for an EJ community to deal with the disproportionate impact they’ve seen for generations.”
At the Capitol committee meeting this month, Tampa Bay Congress member Kathy Castor spoke with EPA Administrator Michael Regan about how this will affect Tampa residents.
“In Tampa in the Progress Village Palm River area, we’re talking at the local level now, these are neighbors who are not on wastewater, they’re on septic. They still have drinking water wells. They’re in the shadow of a huge phosphogypsum stack, and it looks like the EJ grant opportunities are going to unlock the ability to improve people’s lives”
Castor points Floridians to rewiringamerica.org to learn how they can benefit from these grants.
