TCEQ Awarded $18.6 Million For Environmental Programs

EPA Grant to bolster environmental monitoring, permitting and enforcement

DALLAS, TX, Feb. 17, 2009 -- The Environmental Protection Agency has awarded $18,609,238 to the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality’s Performance Partnership Grant (PPG) to assist in administering Texas’s environmental quality programs.

PPGs are a powerful funding tool that the EPA offers to eligible States. A PPG is a multi-program grant awarded to a state from funds otherwise available for categorical grant programs.

A state can combine funds from 2 or more of 17 eligible grant programs into 1 or more PPGs. Recipients may then use PPGs to fund activities that are within the stated purpose of the 17 eligible grant programs.

According to the EPA, the grants enable states to better direct their funding toward their most critical environmental problems while continuing to address core program requirements. Using the funds, states can implement multi-media high priority strategies such as community-based environmental protection, pollution prevention, and environmental justice, and reduce administrative burdens and costs by reducing the numbers of grants applications, budget, workplans, and reports

TCEQ’s environmental programs aim to prevent, reduce, and eliminate water, solid waste, air, and pesticide pollution through standard-setting, monitoring, permitting and enforcement activities.