This article was first published on Richmondside and Richmond Confidential, and is part of The Stakes, a UC Berkeley Journalism project on executive orders affecting Californians and their communities.
Sometime since Friday, when Contra Costa County officials last checked on an anticipated grant for North Richmond, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency had suspended the promised $19 million, marking the second time the grant has been put on hold since President Donald Trump tried to freeze federal grants in January. The suspension throws into question several community development projects to improve the environment, health and overall quality of life in North Richmond—including tree plantings, creek restoration, and a green jobs initiative.
“This is really about hurting the people and community of North Richmond,” Contra Costa County Supervisor John Gioia said. “That’s what this is.”
Michael Brogan, EPA Region 9 press officer, said last week that the agency could not immediately respond to Richmond Confidential’s questions about whether the grant is among the many being pulled by the EPA. Brogan directed questions to USA Spending, the official open data source of federal awards such as contracts, grants, and loans. Presently, the database lists the county’s grant as “in progress,” with two years and 10 months remaining, and indicates that the grant started Feb. 1. But Gioia said last week the portal through which funds are disbursed indicates the grant had been suspended. And while the county had been able to withdraw $30,000 of grant money two weeks ago, it was unable to access additional funds last week.
In this series, Bay Nature is documenting how Trump’s agenda affects federal funding for nature locally. Send tips to wildbillions@baynature.org or to Tanvi Dutta Gupta on Signal at colugo_68.21, and read more stories in the project here.
Gioia said it’s been challenging for the county to get a definitive answer about the grant. “I think we are in for a future of uncertainty on federal funding issues generally,” he said.
The North Richmond Community Resilience Initiative is among 105 projects awarded EPA grants through the Inflation Reduction Act’s Community Change Grant Program. The funding was awarded late last year. These grants to local communities totaled nearly $1.6 billion and were said to be the largest investment in environmental and climate justice in history.
North Richmond is a small unincorporated community, entirely encircled by the City of Richmond, that was established as a “refuge” for Black shipyard workers and families during World War II, according to the county’s grant application. This low-income, majority-Hispanic community, situated along the Bay Area’s refinery corridor, has long faced “poor air quality, heightened health risks, and environmental degradation.” It is now also facing serious flood risks as the sea level rises. Under CalEnviroScreen, a state mapping tool for identifying communities most at risk from pollution, North Richmond scores in the 96th percentile.
The county has received no information about why the grant was suspended again, Gioia said. It was first suspended for a couple of weeks shortly after Trump took office and announced he was freezing all federal grants. It remained suspended even after two federal judges issued temporary injunctions to keep the money flowing. Around Feb. 21, Contra Costa County officials noticed that the North Richmond grant’s status had changed from suspended to “open.” Through all the changes, they said they had no communication with the EPA. Last week, county officials were optimistic when they were able to access the grant portal — the grant is set up to reimburse money spent upfront by the county. But within days, the portal closed again.
Two EPA employees were assigned to manage the grants, but Gioia said he heard that one was reassigned and the other was laid off. “As of right now, the county doesn’t have anyone to go to about this,” he said.
On the EPA website, EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin boasts of the savings the agency has made by working with Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), noting it has cut more than 400 grants in the past few weeks. “Working hand-in-hand with DOGE to rein in wasteful federal spending, EPA has saved more than $2 billion in taxpayer money,” Zeldin said in a news release last week. “It is our commitment at EPA to be exceptional stewards of tax dollars.”
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Contra Costa County applied for the Community Change Grant Program in September with organizations such as Urban Tilth, The Watershed Project, and the Richmond Land and Community Housing Development Corp. The grant is for a host of community projects, including planting trees in the Verde Elementary schoolyard, providing an e-bike lending library, and restoring the Wildcat Creek trail and watershed, to reduce flood risk and improve water quality. Additionally, the initiative would support the construction of energy-efficient housing, the retrofitting of 40 homes to be fully electric, and the creation of a community resilience center at the North Richmond Farm. And the grant is meant to create jobs, with a “Green Collar Corps” training local youth in urban forestry or creek restoration work.
“We put a lot of work into applying and getting this grant for the benefit of North Richmond residents,” Gioia said. “So I think it would be quite unfortunate to lose the ability to improve the life of North Richmond residents through this grant.”
