Grants to clean up drinking water in red states could get axed under Trump
Grant recipients across the country are holding their breath as the Environmental Protection Agency reviews scores of “environmental justice” grants, calling into question the future of projects meant to provide clean drinking water and disaster shelters to underserved communities — some of which are in Republican districts.
At the direction of President Donald Trump, the EPA has targeted billions of dollars in grants for termination and confirmed this week that the agency will shutter the Office of Environmental Justice and External Civil Rights, created under the George H.W. Bush administration.
Under special scrutiny is the office’s Community Change Grants Program, a pool of about $2 billion from the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act, aimed at helping communities prepare for natural disasters and generally improve environmental conditions. Specific projects range from installing solar panels in low-income neighborhoods to improving stormwater infrastructure in areas hit hard by hurricanes. All of the grants under the program are under review, according to two people familiar with the matter, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal processes.
The EPA did not respond to requests for comment. In a statement released this week, the agency said it had “identified and canceled more than 400 additional grants across nine unnecessary programs totaling $1.7 billion in savings for the American people,” though it did not specify the Community Change Grants Program.
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“Some believe that so-called ‘environmental justice’ is warranted to assist communities that have been left behind,” EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin said in a statement on closing the environmental justice office. “But in reality, ‘environmental justice’ has been used primarily as an excuse to fund left-wing activists instead of actually spending those dollars to directly remediate environmental issues for those communities.”
Daren Bakst, director of the Competitive Enterprise Institute’s Center for Energy and Environment, a free-market think tank, said that community change grants are another example of the “waste from the partisan Inflation Reduction Act” and that the entire program is “out of touch with reality.” He added that disadvantaged communities need affordable electricity, not solar panels.
“There are plenty of reasons for the EPA to do what it can to stop this waste and to protect taxpayers,” Bakst said. “All Americans will benefit from stopping such misguided spending, and if we want to help disadvantaged communities, let’s focus on real solutions not pushing environmental extremism.”
The latest grant suspensions come as the agency has announced plans to dismantle some of former president Joe Biden’s most consequential climate and environmental regulations, including rules covering electric vehicles, power plants and clean water. Last month, Zeldin announced that the agency would seek to claw back $20 billion awarded under the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund, a program also established under the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act.
Contaminated water has been a constant concern in Pocatello, Idaho, where nitrate levels in local wells prompted the small city to seek federal grants to build sewer systems in areas without them.
Pocatello, the seat of Bannock County, where two-thirds of voters cast a ballot for Trump in 2024, scored a major win in July when the EPA awarded the city $16.5 million to undertake a sewer project that would greatly improve water quality — not only in Pocatello, but throughout the surrounding valley.
The project is underway, Pocatello Mayor Brian Blad said in an email, but the grant money is not flowing — as the EPA reviews and cuts grants awarded under environmental justice programs.
“The reimbursement system for the grant program is currently not active, which means the City is unable to process any reimbursement payments for the work we are completing,” Blad said. Although the pause won’t cause immediate delays, “we do not have the resources to cover the expenses indefinitely.”
Some community change grants are already slated to be terminated, according to planning documents reviewed by The Washington Post. Those provided funds to build community centers, known as “resilience hubs,” where residents can gather during and after natural disasters. Grants to build hubs in Denver and Butte-Silver Bow, Montana, are listed among those to be canceled, according to the documents.
The community change grants were “magical,” said Matthew Tejada, who served in the EPA’s Office of Environmental Justice and External Civil Rights from 2013 to 2023 and now works at the Natural Resources Defense Council, an advocacy group.
“For the first time in generations, communities across our country had some hope that their government was going to give them a hand up. And just as they were starting to make some real change happen in their communities, their government is letting go,” Tejada said.
“Shovel-ready projects are now going to die on the vine, and it means communities are going to have an even harder time making use of any other government programs,” he added.
In North Richmond, California, $19 million awarded to improve conditions for residents neighboring a Chevron refinery has been suspended, according to John Gioia, a member of the Contra Costa County Board of Supervisors. The grant, awarded in December, would have funded the construction of a resilience center and improvements to homes aimed at energy efficiency and reducing exposure to pollutants.
“The grant is really designed to improve people’s health,” Gioia said in an interview. “And it is unfortunate that the EPA, without understanding the details of the projects, cancels a grant to improve the community.”
Other grants are paused, such as $19.4 million awarded to Lee County, Florida, which was devastated by Hurricane Ian, a Category 4 storm, in 2022. The grant, awarded in December, is meant to help the area enhance stormwater infrastructure, improve water storage and build four resilience hubs in Fort Myers meant to boost emergency preparedness. Though more than half of voters in Fort Myers voted for Kamala Harris in 2024, two-thirds of Lee County voters cast ballots for Trump.
Dawn Belamarich, president and CEO of the Collaboratory, the nonprofit managing the Lee County project, confirmed that the funds were paused but declined to comment further.
In Pocatello, a grant cancellation for the sewer project would be especially troubling, said Sarah Godsey, a professor in the Department of Geosciences at Idaho State University. A decade ago, Godsey tested about 100 private wells in Pocatello and found that septic systems were probably contaminating the drinking water supply. The high nitrate levels, she said, could be especially harmful to pregnant women and lead to blue baby syndrome, when a baby’s skin turns blue because of a shortage of oxygen in the blood.
Godsey said planning to improve the water supply has been in the works for years, and the recent infusion of federal funding was a relief. Pulling the money back would present a remarkable setback, she said.
“To have it on hold is disappointing,” Godsey said. “There’s just so much that’s gone into this that, putting this on hold, is the opposite of efficient, because it’s going to lead to delays in short-term human health impacts and the long-term impacts for this community.”