MIT Researchers Awarded $750,000 Grant to Study Climate Change Effects

News Release

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
New England Regional Office
August 22, 2012

Contact: David Deegan, (617) 918-1017

MIT Researchers Awarded $750,000 Grant to Study Climate Change Effects

(Boston, Mass. – Aug. 22, 2012) – The Massachusetts Institute of Technology has been awarded $749,931 by the US Environmental Protection Agency to examine the ability of models to represent the presence of extreme air pollution and the weather conditions that are associated with it.

This grant was one of 14 awarded by EPA to universities across the nation for a total of $9 million to fund research on technologies that can help the public and government agencies predict and prepare for the effect extreme weather triggered by climate change may have on the nation’s air and water quality.

The project at MIT, based in Cambridge, Mass., will use advanced statistical techniques to identify the drivers and occurrence of historical and future extreme air quality events in the United States from observations and models.

“We need to know how changes in weather and extreme weather events will affect the quality of our air and water,” said Curt Spalding, regional administrator of EPA’s New England office. “Grants like the one EPA awarded to MIT furthers research that can help us understand the impact of such weather on our natural resources as well as our built environment. In turn, this information can help us take steps to reduce the harmful impact on our communities brought by extreme weather events.”

The project involves a collaboration of atmospheric scientists at MIT and the National Center for Atmospheric Research with statisticians at Colorado State University and North Carolina State University.

"We are excited that in this project we are bringing together statisticians who specialize in thinking about extreme events with atmospheric scientists who are concerned with air quality issues,” said project leader Colette Heald at MIT. “It's a great team to tackle this problem and we are looking forward to learning more about the connections between extreme air quality and extreme weather."

The other 13 grants were awarded to: Public Policy Institute of California, Mississippi State University, Ohio State University, Oregon State University, University of Washington, University of South Florida (two grants), Michigan State University, Michigan Technological University, University of Texas at Austin, Georgia Institute of Technology, Columbia University, and Cornell University.

More information on these EPA research grants (http://www.epa.gov/ncer/xevents).

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News Release from EPA Region 2

EPA Funding Available for Study of Raritan River in NJ

Contact: Mary Mears (212) 637-3673; mears.mary@epa.gov

(New York, N.Y. – March 13, 2012) The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is encouraging applications for $100,000 in funding to study contaminated sites and other sources of pollution that are impacting water quality in the lower and middle Raritan River. This funding is part of an EPA Raritan River Initiative, which will support the analysis of existing data to enable environmental agencies, institutions, community groups and local governments to identify data gaps, plan future research and make other environmental decisions.

The Raritan River runs from west of Somerville, N.J. into the Raritan Bay. The river and the surrounding watershed is home to over one million people, providing drinking water, transportation and recreation opportunities and important habitat for wildlife. The watershed is impacted by many sources of pollution, including contaminated sites, industrial facilities and sewage treatment systems. While there is sampling data collected within the Raritan River watershed, this information is fragmented.

“This funding demonstrates the EPA's continued commitment to a cleaner and healthier Raritan River and the health of everyone who enjoys it," said EPA Regional Administrator Judith A. Enck. "The data and information collected will help Raritan River communities better understand pollution that has affected river conditions and will assist in decision-making on the best ways to improve water quality.”

Using the funding, the selected applicant will identify high priority sites and sources of pollution that are potentially impacting the river. The resulting site list and associated data will then be made available to the public and put into a format that can be used by state agencies, country and local governments, non-profit organizations and other stakeholders to make environmental decisions. The data would also be used to create an interactive website to show exact locations of potentially polluting sites along the river along with the data for each site.

All applications are due no later than April 23, 2012 at 5:00 p.m. EDT. Additional information on the grants, including guidance on eligibility and procedures for applying, is available at http://www.epa.gov/region2/grants/ or through http://www.grants.gov.

Follow EPA Region 2 on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/eparegion2 and Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/eparegion2.

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