New Environmental Finance Centers Named
EPA has announced that eight universities and one technical assistance provider will serve as designated finance centers under the Environmental Financial Center (EFC) Grant Program. Awardees were selected from public and private nonprofit universities and colleges and non-profit organizations through a competitive grants process. The newly named EFCs will provide multi-media environmental finance expertise and technical assistance to help address the growing costs of protecting public health and the environment in a sustainable manner and develop solutions to the critical “how-to-pay” issues associated with meeting environmental goals.
The designated EFCs are:
EPA Region 1 University of Southern Maine
EPA Region 2 Syracuse University
EPA Region 3 University of Maryland
EPA Region 4 Univ. of North Carolina/Chapel Hill
EPA Region 5 Michigan Technical University
EPA Region 6 University of New Mexico
EPA Region 7 Wichita State University
EPA Region 8 Not named
EPA Region 9 CA State Univ./Sacramento
EPA Region 10 RCAC
While the EFCs respond to needs across all media, some of the water-related priorities include:
- building the capacity of communities and private parties to develop, implement, and support sustainable public-purpose water and other environmental infrastructure systems;
- supporting environmentally and fiscally sustainable environmental infrastructure, including ensuring the resiliency and security of that infrastructure;
- providing computer-based and other financial and outreach tools to communities (particularly small and disadvantage ones) to help them more effectively manage watersheds and water systems; and
- improving drinking water and wastewater utility water conservation, energy efficiency, management, and capital planning; and
For more information about the EFCs and their priorities, go to http://www2.epa.gov/envirofinance/efc-grant-competition.
