EPA Awards $350,000 to Advance Environmental Justice in Hawai‘i

 EPA News Release:

EPA Awards $350,000 to Advance Environmental Justice in Hawai‘i

HONOLULU – Today, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is announcing $350,000 in new grants to advance environmental justice in Hawai‘i. The grants will support three new projects on the Islands of O’ahu, Maui, and Kaua’i.

“Through these grants, EPA is funding innovative projects across Hawai‘i based on community priorities,” said EPA Pacific Southwest Regional Administrator Martha Guzman. “Our goal is to achieve positive impacts through the meaningful involvement and fair treatment of the communities we serve, providing them the resources to advance environmental justice.”

The grants, awarded through EPA’s national Environmental Justice Small Grants and Collaborative Problem-Solving programs, support underserved communities across Hawai‘i in their efforts to address local environmental and public health issues.

These EJ Small Grant awards are funded through the American Rescue Plan and Congressional appropriations. The projects cover a wide variety of environmental justice issues including community, environmental, and public health education; sustainable farming, climate change mitigation and resiliency.

Organizations in Hawai‘i receiving grants include:

• Trees for Honolulu’s Future, a non-profit, received an EJ Small Grant to partner with the Hawai‘i Department of Education, local colleges, and the organization Smart Trees Pacific to conduct outreach on urban heat island effects in central Oahu.

The organization will have five cohorts at four sites, intending to reach at least 250 students. They will train middle and high school students on collecting weather and soil data, and host discussions for students to identify solutions for heat mitigation and develop resiliency to disaster events exacerbated by climate change.

"We're excited to train student scientists in grades 3 to 12 to investigate the impact of heat on their homes or schools," said Daniel Dinell, President of Trees for Honolulu's Future. “The project area suffers disproportionately as a heat island compared to other parts of Honolulu. Critically as part of the initiative, the children will come up with solutions to mitigate what is rapidly becoming a grave risk to human health and livability. We thank the EPA EJ program for this opportunity to make a difference in this underserved community."

• Na Moku Aupuni O Ko‘olau Hui is based out of Maui. It received an EJ Small Grant to implement the Ke‘anae-Wailuanui “Community Watershed Monitoring and Conservation Project” to enhance water stewardship by training the underserved community on the use of water quantity and quality tools alongside their regional and cultural knowledge.

This training will educate participants to monitor 27 streams, tributaries, and estuaries within the Ko‘olau District in Maui and foster a healthier watershed while supporting traditional and customary practices. These practices include subsistence gathering, fishing and taro farming. 

• Kaunalewa, a non-profit, was selected for an EJ Collaborative Problem-Solving Cooperative Agreement to improve health and well-being of the small, isolated community of Kekaha Town on the island of Kaua’i. Kekaha is identified as a food desert, and Kaunalewa will work to address this through environmental and health education. Under this project, it will look to expand produce access by 20% and decrease cost by 20%. They seek to build community capacity on gardening as well as support local small-scale farming programs that include youth.

They will also conduct research and sampling to educate the community on legacy pesticide and asbestos health impacts in order to understand community exposure and reduce the rates of health concerns associated with pesticide and asbestos exposure. Lastly, they will look to decrease rates of diabetes through healthy eating education.

The American Rescue Plan (ARP), signed into law in March 2021, provided over 60 percent of the funding for these projects being funded across the U.S. Awards made with the ARP focus on the unequal impacts the COVID-19 pandemic has had on communities of color, low-income communities, and other vulnerable populations.

Learn more about EJ Grants by visiting EPA’s Small Grant Program and Environmental Justice Collaborative Problem-Solving Cooperative Agreement Program websites.

Learn more about ARP funding at EPA’s American Rescue Plan website.

Learn more about environmental justice and EPA’s Pacific Southwest Region. Connect with us on Facebook and on Twitter.