Tommy Washbush
Wildfire smog in Madison on June 28, 2023.
Smog from wildfires in Canada hung over Madison in late June 2023.
Three federal grants that support programs to monitor air quality, increase home energy efficiency, and assist schools’ transition to electric buses appear safe now after weeks of uncertainty, says Jessica Price, Madison’s sustainability and resilience manager.
“I'm happy to say that right now, we have access to all three of our EPA grants,” Price said at a Feb. 24 meeting of the Sustainable Madison Committee.
Price tells Isthmus that for some time these Environmental Protection Agency grants did not appear on a federal portal that manages disbursements and her team also had limited success communicating with federal administrators about these grants and others with the Department of Energy. Contacts at both agencies responded to emails from her office saying they will “respond as soon as possible.”
Price’s team has been able to work with community partners including the Efficiency Navigator, Project Home’s weatherization assistance program, and Operation Fresh Start to keep track of funding and check on reimbursement requests.
The $429,000 air quality grant funds the analysis of 65 local air quality monitors installed around Madison. The monitors measure the concentrations of particulate matter, an air pollutant that is a mixture of solid particles and liquid droplets. It is important to monitor the concentrations of particulate matter since it is linked to cardiovascular and respiratory health issues, Price notes.
“[Particulate matter] can cause health problems over time, or in cases where we had that wildfire smoke that came in over the last few summers, it makes conditions like asthma and other kinds of breathing and heart conditions worse for folks,” Price says.
Another $20 million EPA grant is funding energy efficiency upgrades for single and multi-family homes in the city that are either owned or rented by lower-income families. The funding covers insulation, weather sealing and energy-efficient appliances to save on energy bills.
“We know that in Wisconsin and across the country, low-income households actually pay a larger portion of their household income on energy. By saving energy and saving money, we're helping to lower their cost of living,” Price says.
The EPA has also provided $40,000 in discretionary funding for outreach related to the Clean School Bus Program, which assists schools in transition from diesel to electric buses. This initiative helps lower operation and fuel costs, reduce tailpipe emissions near schools, and improve air quality for children who are particularly vulnerable to pollution, Price says.
The city also has a nearly $300,000 block grant from the Department of Energy, which remains accessible; it supports a program that requires large commercial buildings to benchmark their energy consumption annually and “tune up” their buildings every four years, Price says. Another DOE grant of $500,000 to expand the city’s Efficiency Navigator program went through the contract negotiation process but has yet to be finalized by the DOE, leaving the city in a holding pattern, Price says. The Efficiency Navigator program is a partnership with Sustain Dane and Elevate to help small apartment housing become more efficient while reducing operating costs and utility bills for owners.
“We're kind of full steam ahead right now. We're really checking to keep everything on track, and we're really going to be working hard to do that,” Price says. “I hope this has just been a short period of uncertainty and pause, and then we'll get to continue to do the work. I wish I had a crystal ball to see what was going to happen in the future.”
