News Releases from Region 06

EPA issues Multipurpose grant to Louisiana to reduce paper waste

DALLAS – (July 23, 2020) The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recently issued a Multipurpose grant (MPG) to the Louisiana Department of Natural Resources to analyze and review Underground Injection Control (UIC) permits. The state has developed a system to receive permits online rather than in paper form. 

“This grant will provide environmental and cost saving benefits while increasing the efficiency of organizations with injection and disposal well permits,” said EPA Regional Administrator Ken McQueen. “By using innovative best practices, Louisiana is helping to reduce waste from paper.” 

EPA regularly provides financial assistance to support activities for granting permits, monitoring construction and operation and enforcement of injection or disposal wells. The funds may also be used to perform technical reviews of permit applications, perform on-site field investigations and conduct interviews and visual observations for compliance assurance.

The mission of the EPA is to protect public health. This grant helps ensure American citizens have safe sources of drinking water through a cooperative effort between EPA, state and tribal governments. The UIC program works toward protecting underground sources of drinking water from contamination by regulating the construction and operation of injection wells.

Congress created the MPG program in 2016, and appropriated funds to this program in fiscal year (FY) 2018, FY 2019, and FY 2020. This MPG program is for the $13 million Congress appropriated in FY 2020. The Explanatory Statement accompanying the 2020 Act suggested that states and tribes might use the MPG funds to address emerging contaminants such as PFAS, but directed the Agency “to continue to give maximum flexibility to States and Tribes so that they, not the Agency, may determine where funds from this grant program are of most value.”

For more about EPA grants: https://19january2021snapshot.epa.gov/grants  

For more about underground injection control: https://19january2021snapshot.epa.gov/uic

More about EPA’s work in Louisiana: https://19january2021snapshot.epa.gov/LA

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On Twitter: https://twitter.com/EPAregion6

About EPA Region 6: https://19january2021snapshot.epa.gov/aboutepa/epa-region-6-south-central  

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