U.S. EPA News Release:

November 5, 2020

Contact: Suzanne Skadowski, 206-553-2160, Skadowski.Suzanne@epa.gov

 

Pacific Northwest Pollution Prevention Resource Center receives EPA grant to help auto repair shops use safer alternatives to toxic chemicals

 

SEATTLE– Today, on the 30th anniversary of the Pollution Prevention Act, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced the selection of 11 organizations across nine states to receive $1.16 million in grant funding to support pollution prevention activities. The grants will fund innovative, cost-effective, replicable source reduction approaches enabling grant recipients and others to save energy and water, reduce pollution, and improve public health. EPA awarded a $119,872 grant to the Pacific Northwest Pollution Prevention Resource Center (PPRC) to help reduce toxic chemicals commonly used in auto repair

 

“When the groundbreaking Pollution Prevention Act was signed 30 years ago, EPA was given a simple charge: work to prevent pollution before it happens,” said EPA Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention Assistant Administrator Alexandra Dapolito Dunn. “By providing our partners with essential tools, resources and information, we have taken a strategic approach that has yielded millions of dollars in savings and avoided the use of tens of thousands of pounds of hazardous chemicals. I’m looking forward to seeing the contributions of EPA’s 2020 source reduction grantees to our national pollution prevention effort.”

 

EPA’s individual Source Reduction Assistance (SRA) grant awards range from $43,000 to $174,000 for a two-year funding period. For these grants, EPA prioritized funding for projects that support research, education, and/or training of innovative source reduction techniques. The grantees will document and share source reduction best practices that are identified and developed through these grants so that others can replicate these practices and outcomes.

 

PPRC will use the SRA grant funds to work in partnership with states to help auto repair businesses reduce their use of chemicals regulated under the Toxic Chemicals Control Act (TSCA) such as perchloroethylene (PERC), trichloroethylene (TCE), methylene chloride (MC) and n-propyl bromide (nPB), which are commonly used in auto repair. PPRC will provide webinar trainings and roundtable conferences for agency and auto repair businesses and staff. Businesses will also benefit from industrial on-site assessments, and educational resources such as checklists, fact sheets and case studies. PPRC will also give pollution prevention assessment training to interns and project participants, assisting as necessary with on-site assessments, and advising participating businesses and interns. In the first year of the project, PPRC will conduct a webinar in safer chemical alternatives in auto repair. PPRC will host a second webinar targeting breweries for pollution prevention technical assistance in wastewater in the project’s second year.

 

PPRC works collaboratively with business, government, and non-government organizations, to promote environmental protection by helping businesses reduce toxics at their sources. Source reduction provides environmental protection that effectively reduces both pollution and businesses’ costs. Preventing pollution at the source also prevents harmful downstream exposures and costly cleanups. Learn more about PPRC’s work in the Pacific Northwest at: https://pprc.org/  

 

Since the inception of the program in 2003, EPA has awarded SRA grants to state, local, and tribal government entities; non-profits; and university partners to work directly with U.S. businesses to develop and implement source reduction techniques. Read more about the Source Reduction Assistance (SRA) Grant Program and about the individual projects.

 

 

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