News Releases from Region 02
EPA Awards Source Reduction Grant to New York State Pollution Prevention Institute at Rochester Institute of Technology
Nationwide, 11 organizations across nine states will receive grant funding totaling $1.16 million to support pollution prevention.
NEW YORK - Today, on the 30th anniversary of the Pollution Prevention Act, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced an award of nearly $175,000 in a Source Reduction Assistance Grant to the New York State Pollution Prevention Institute (NYSP2I) at Rochester Institute of Technology. This grant will fund innovative, cost-effective, replicable source reduction approaches to save energy and water, reduce pollution, and improve public health.
“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.”
“This grant will provide training and transfer of knowledge to greatly reduce the energy and water consumption at Western and Central New York State wineries,” said EPA Regional Administrator Pete Lopez. “We commend NYSP2I for its innovative approach to pollution prevention and congratulate them on this award.”
The NYSP2I at Rochester Institute of Technology has been selected to receive nearly $175,000 to provide pollution prevention training to over two hundred wineries in Western and Central New York State. The grantee will collect baseline data and will create a sustainability workbook and self-assessment checklist that will assist wineries in reducing energy and water consumption, wastewater, hazardous material releases and saving money. NYSP2I will provide on-site technical assistance to five wineries from which it will generate case studies that will be shared throughout the sector.
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. For instance, the University of Minnesota Technical Assistance Program, using 16-17 SRA grant funds provided technical assistance to 45 businesses in Minneapolis to reduce air pollution in surrounding neighborhoods and cut electricity expenses. In addition, seven participating companies switched to environmentally-safer chemical alternatives in their sanitization and disinfection processes.
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