The Climate Pollution Reduction Grant (CPRG) program of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) supports and introduces improved greenhouse-gas reduction measures to help combat the ongoing climate crisis across the United States. In September, the EPA announced funding to the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community via President Joe Biden’s “Investing in America” agenda.

The EPA approved funding of 34 applications across the United States, which included 31 applications from tribal nations and one U.S. territory. In Arizona, only two applications from tribal nations were awarded funding from the EPA, the applications from the Hopi Tribe and the SRPMIC. 

The SRPMIC will officially receive $9,754,050 from the EPA, with the funds scheduled to be released for implementation in early 2025. The grant is the largest amount that the SRPMIC Air Quality Program (AQP) has ever received to support its ongoing efforts to improve the air quality in the Community. Previously, the largest amount of grant money the AQP had received was $800,000. 

The CPRG grant will implement/improve upon 10 pollution-reduction measures in the SRPMIC, including department fleet electrification, electric vehicle charging station creation, home energy assessment, building retrofits, introducing an electric/battery-powered and lawn/garden voucher program, solar paneled covered parking installation, and planting 3,000 trees in the Community for continued air quality improvement, in addition to a land buy-back program and more. 

“The land buy-back program is where we would offer landowners money to purchase pieces of their land that we can preserve as natural space,” shared SRPMIC Senior Environmental Engineer Regina Leverette-Mason. “We’ll then vegetate that space.”

She continued, “There were so many elements in the application process, and with a shortened timeframe, that’s what hurt a lot of others [tribes] because there just wasn’t a lot of time [to get the grant application completed]. We had to get the work done quickly and effectively.” 

“We will have access to the [grant] money in January,” said Environmental Engineer Ben Davis. “That’s when we will sit down and figure out what we all need to do with other departments.”

The AQP will also keep Community members updated and aware of the future ongoing improvements on the 10 measurements being implemented in the Community.

“We’re going to make sure these measures are implemented but also sustained when the five-year grant is over,” said Zonnie Olivas, environmental specialist.