The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency awarded $1.7 million in grants Friday to fund four air quality monitoring projects in the state.
The Cleveland Department of Public Health received $500,000 and the City of Canton received $302,775. The money will fund air quality monitoring projects that are focused on “communities that are underserved, historically marginalized, and overburdened by pollution,” an EPA news release stated.
Data collected will be used to inform medical providers on barriers to accessing asthma management and will allow cities to produce information and resources on asthma management unique to their neighborhood.
“This grant funding will support our development of a Community Leveraged Expanded Air Network in Cleveland (CLEANinCLE) that will allow our team of partners to expand our air monitoring network into historically redlined Cleveland neighborhoods that are still experiencing negative health outcomes,” Cleveland’s Commissioner of the Division of Air Quality David Hearne said in the city’s news release.
Funding for the projects is part of the Biden administration’s Inflation Reduction Act and the American Rescue Plan Act, which allowed the EPA to support 132 air monitoring projects across 37 states.
“Families shouldn’t have to worry about whether the air they’re breathing is healthy,” said Sen. Sherrod Brown, who helped to write and pass the legislation. “Because of the work we did in the American Rescue Plan and the Inflation Reduction Act, Ohio communities will be able to better monitor harmful pollutants and Ohioans will know the air they’re breathing is safe."
Ohio’s remaining funds will be split between the Groundwork Ohio River Valley in Cincinnati, which received $482,662, and the Mid-Ohio Regional Planning Commission, which got $500,000.
