FY 2005 Small Grants Recipients

In Fiscal Year 2005, five Environmental Justice (EJ) Small Grants were awarded to recipients from Georgia, South Carolina, and North Carolina. The following list, organized by states, has information about these grants.

West Atlanta Watershed Alliance, Inc.
965 Laurelmont Drive
Atlanta, Georgia 30311
Amount: $25,000.00
Type: Research

Statute: Clean Water Act, Section 104(b)(3), Clean Water Act, Section 8001(a) of the Solid Waste Disposal Act, Section 103(b)(3) of the Clean Air Act.

This project engages the community in gathering and inventorying comprehensive information on community-identified environmental and public health issues. Residents will be actively involved in the problem identification, data collection, and mapping of environmental stressors.

Residents are faced with multiple environmental and public health concerns including a polluted creek (Proctor Creek); foul odors and respiratory irritants; dilapidated, sub-standard housing; major highways; heavy truck traffic; air pollution; rail yards; wastewater treatment plants, incinerators, landfills and illegal trash dumping sites; car repair/maintenance shops, welding shops; diesel truck stops; rock quarries; concrete and metal recycling facilities; superfund sites; neglected city parks; large areas of impervious surfaces; eroded stream banks that abut residential properties; and various types of industrial pollution. Research conducted by the Clark Atlanta University Environmental Justice Resource Center in 1994 identified 64 uncontrolled toxic waste facilities in one area of the community, Zip Code 30318. The Neighborhood Environmental Project conducted by the City of Atlanta in the nineteen-nineties identified this area as one of the most polluted zip codes in Fulton County and one of the most industrialized areas of Atlanta (Northwest Atlanta Corridor).

Peachtree Woodall Whetstone Watershed Alliance
Watershed Alliance, Inc.
1935 Woodland Hills Avenue NW
Atlanta, Georgia 30318
Amount: $25,000.00
Type: Multi-Media

Statute: Clean Water Act, Section 104(b)(3), Solid Waste Disposal Act and Clean Air Act

The purpose of this project is to protect human health, to slow down the destruction of the local environment, particularly tree canopy, and give voice to an emerging call for environmental protection and restoration.

The accelerating loss of tree canopy, stream buffers and other greenspaces in the predominately African American and poor communities of northwest Atlanta is burdened them with a disproportionate share of negative environmental consequences. The dramatic increase in asthma and other respiratory illnesses among the population has been linked to the rapid destruction of tree canopy. Black molds associated with moisture buildup form inadequate storm drainage/the absence of trees to absorb rainfall may also play a roll. The lack of public greenspace for both recreation and reverie affects the public welfare. The quality in creeks and streams is severely impaired.

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Sewee to Santee Community Development Corporation
10017 Highway 17 North
McClellanville, South Carolina 29458
Amount: $25,000.00
Type: Multi-Media

Statute: Clean Water Act, Section 104(b)(3), Safe drinking Water Act, Section 1442(c)(3)(A)

This project focuses on clean water, and safe drinking water. It is the intent to train, as a pilot project, the citizens of Germantown in the care and maintenance of their septic and portable water systems. The project intends to identify inspection and maintenance ordinances and/or regulations for Charleston County and the State of South Carolina, to provide programmatic recommendations for Germantown, in draft ordinance language, establishing protocols for a model onsite/decentralized wastewater management inspection and maintenance program. The project also intend to demonstrate the repair or replace failed septic systems to protect the portable water supply and surface and ground water as most portable water is from individual, shallow wells, susceptible to surface contamination.

The Northeastern Charleston County, Santee Region is currently listed in the top twenty-five areas most in need of clean water and appropriate septic systems in the entire state of South Carolina. The area has a critical need for clean, safe portable water and properly functioning septic systems as many of the residents have failed septic systems and contaminated fresh water systems.

Bethlehem Baptist Church
271 Bethlehem Circle
Graniteville, South Carolina 29829
Amount: $25,000.00
Type: Multi-Media

Statute: Clean Air Act, Toxic Substances Control Act

The purpose of this project is to promote better communication of unbiased information on the environment and health for the benefit of the well being of the Graniteville community. The environmental and public health concerns that would be addressed using this grant will be done so through workshops. The workshops would focus on three main concerns citizens expressed during the town meetings sponsored by the Graniteville Community Coalition and the South Carolina Department of Health and environmental Control. The first meeting will hopefully bring more clarity on the health and environmental effects of chlorine.

On January 6, 2005, Norfolk Southern staff did not move a switch, which then caused a train that was traveling 45 mph to slam into a parked locomotive that was on a spur line. The accident took place at 2:40 a.m. within the center of the town of Graniteville, SC. The wreck punctured a 90-ton tanker car filled with chlorine gas, causing it to leak.

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Rural Empowerment Association for Community Help (REACH)
1912 West Wards Bridge Road
Warsaw, North Carolina 28398
Amount: $25,000.00
Type: Multi-Media

Statute: Clean Water Act, Section 104(b)(3), Safe drinking Water Act, Section 1442(c)(3)(A), Solid Waste Disposal Act and Clean Air Act 103(b)(3), Toxic Substances Control Act, Section 10(a)

This environmental health research project, will be developing educational gatherings/community meetings for educating the community on the effects of industrial hog farms on the air and water. Information disseminated will be on environmental health, and what it is, health disparities of people of color, industrial hog farms and toxic waste, Social, environmental and economic factors and health, and physical, emotional, and mental health effects of environmental hazards.

Many residents in our community suffer from severe chronic diseases, including diabetes, respiratory illness, cancer, obesity, and depression. We believe that there is a correlation between these diseases and social, environmental, and economic factors. These social economic and environmental factors are believed to have an extremely harmful effect on residents and provide a basis for implementing a community-based partnership research project. In combination with social and economic indicators, environment play a big part in the living conditions in Duplin, a county that raise over two million hogs and over one million turkeys. We believe that the toxins and gases in the air and water that are created by this large number of animals, and their waste, generate additional disparities.

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Learn more about the EJ small grants program

For information about the contents of this page please contact Melony Lewis .

FY 2005 Small Grants Recipients

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