Applications must include at least one project aligned with at least one of the Pollution Reduction Strategies identified below. When addressing the strategy in their application, applicants should describe relevant challenges faced in the Project Area and how the selected Pollution Reduction Strategy(ies) will address those challenges. Each Pollution Reduction Strategy outlined below is focused on pollution monitoring, prevention, and remediation of quantifiable and health harming pollutants.
Applications that include activities to increase monitoring capabilities or raise community awareness of pollution must also include an associated remediation, implementation, or infrastructure pollution reduction project that addresses the identified pollution issue.
Disadvantaged communities often face high levels of indoor air pollution from several sources, including mold, lead paint, radon, asbestos, fossil fuel combustion, and pollution from outdoors that seeps inside. These pollutants can have a detrimental impact to human health, particularly for vulnerable populations including children, the elderly, and people with health conditions like asthma and heart disease. Activities under Strategy 1 can include education on air toxins / toxics and how to monitor them (e.g., curriculum development, outreach strategies, public education activities) and direct assessment and remediation to reduce harmful air pollution (e.g., installation of filtration systems, building retrofits that address multiple sources of pollution, replacement of wood heaters that do not meet EPA standards, asbestos abatement in schools).