EPA awards Miss. Land Trust with Environmental Justice grant worth nearly $2.5 million

MOSS POINT, Miss. (WLOX) – Almost $2.5 million was signed off to the Mississippi Land Trust (MLT) on Thursday morning.

The MLT submitted their grant application in May of 2023 and got word they would be receiving the money a week ago.

Sara Guice, the executive director of the Mississippi Coastal Plain Land Trust, says this grant will allow the land trust to work directly with community projects.

“That money is for us to push out into communities for nature-based solution projects, community cleanups, anything that the community wants,” she explains.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) selected one entity per state to receive the Environmental Justice grant, which is funded through the Clean Water Act.

The goal of the grant is to make funding more accessible and ease the distribution process to those who need it.

“The Land Trust being the administrator of these $2.5 million dollars, we can then work with our community friends and partners to make it easy, accessible and equitable to get the money out in the communities to get projects that they want,” Guice explains.

Marc Wyatt is the EPA’s Gulf of Mexico Division Director. He says this grant allows the EPA to help disadvantaged communities who are not always heard, apply for funding.

“We’re trying to hear what they are trying to say and help them from the environmental standpoint. And there’s all sorts of things for that — water quality, habitat, environmental education, and coastal resilience,” Wyatt says.

In the next few months, the land trust will establish the sub-award program. From there, cities in each of the lower six counties will be able to apply for a portion of the grant money.

“We’ll all have an opportunity to apply for the money. So, I understand it’s between maybe 25 and 50 thousand dollars we can get. Every city will be competing for that money. Moss Point will be in line to compete just like every other city,” says Moss Point Mayor Billy Knight.

“The smallest thing, such as a litter prevention program, can help or larger-scale nature-based solutions. It’s all to impact our clean water and clean environment for the residents,” Guice explains.

Sara Guice says the land trust is looking forward to preserving South Mississippi’s nature through community plans.

See a spelling or grammar error in this story? Report it to our team HERE.

Source link