A nearly $20 million federal grant will allow three underserved Brunswick County communities to address high levels of lead in water supplies, manage flooding, tackle pollution and restore wetlands.
The Community Change Grant Award is funded through the Biden Administration’s Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) that provided the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) with $1.6 billion “for environmental and climate justice activities to benefit disadvantaged communities through projects that reduce pollution, increase community climate resilience, and build community capacity to address environmental and climate justice challenges.”
The grant was awarded to the Working Lands Trust and its statutory partner, Democracy Green, a nonprofit founded in response to the impacts of Hurricane Florence in 2018 with a mission to address environmental justice issues in rural communities. The funds will distributed across 500 households throughout Ash, Longwood and Supply.
The funding will be used for projects involving the removal of lead pipes from homes and communities, as well as investments in nature-based solutions to restore wetlands, enhance natural water filtration, reduce flooding impacts and support biodiversity — creating a more resilient watershed and local environment.
EPA Southeast Region Director Jeaneanne Gettle said the grant applications asked organizations to outline the community’s needs. “The purpose of the Community Change Grants were to give underserved communities an opportunity to propose action in their community that would better their community [and] meet the needs of the people in that community.
“What we have here with this grant are two different entities that came together cooperatively and prepared a proposal that looked at a wide range of things that benefit this community,” Gettle continued. “I think that the exciting thing about this is that these are two different groups that came together to say, ‘What will make the most difference in this community? What can we do with some of this money?’ And they came up with this proposal that really does get to the heart of why we have Community Change Grants — it’s to allow communities to address issues that really impact them.”
On Thursday, Dec. 11, an event was held at the Cedar Grove Improvement Association Community Center for community members and local leaders to celebrate the awarding of the grant.
Those in attendance included EPA Director of the Environmental Justice Community Health and Environmental Review Division Ramon Torres, NC-17 Representative Frank Iler, Brunswick County NAACP President Carl Parker, Working Lands Trust Executive Director Mikey Fulk and USDA Natural Resources Conservation Services North Carolina Easement Coordinator Brian Loadholt.
Cedar Grove Improvement Association (CGIA) President Venee Robinson said in 2023 Democracy Green approached CGIA and community organizations and leaders in other unincorporated Brunswick County communities with information on the nonprofit’s Clean Water is Safe Water initiative, which addresses water contamination in local drinking water through educating communities on potential harm in their drinking water and helping communities test their water supplies.
The nonprofit started by hosting a workshop to educate the Cedar Grove community on the contaminants in its water supply, Robinson said.
“But they didn’t stop there,” she continued. “They continued their incredible work by hosting water educational workshops at churches, community centers and neighborhoods across our area, including in Supply, Ash, Longwood, Cedar Grove, Calabash, Bolivia, Shallotte and Sunset Beach.”
Democracy Green Board President La’Meshia Whittington said the nonprofit worked to train 500 Brunswick County residents in water testing and tested as many wells and utility lines. Most of the tested water supplies tested positive for high levels of lead, she noted.
“From that point, we realized the lead was also in those pipes and a lot of the older infrastructure, homes, community centers, churches,” Whittington said. “Over the years, we filed co-petitions to the EPA and, fortunately, under this administration they accepted our petition.”
The roughly $20 million has already been dispersed to every one of the 500 affected residents. “Every cent is already allocated to every single household of 500 people,” Whittington said. “250 well users and owners and 250 municipality and utility customers.”
Brunswick County resident Evelyn Johnson is one of the 500 residents that Democracy Green assisted in having her water supply tested. When her results came back, she said she was shock by the high lead levels in her water.
“We were given that opportunity to have the water testing by … an accredited lab as well as through the Brunswick County Health Department,” Johnson said. “We got our results back and, when I initially saw mine, I was very upset. I cried. I could not believe that all these years I had been drinking water that had lead levels that high.”
10% of the grant funds will go toward restoring a wetland off Stanley Road, where fecal matter and PFAS were identified. That watershed, Whittington said, flows directly into the Cedar Grove community’s ground water.
For more information on Democracy Green, visit democracy-green.org For more information on the EPA Community Change Grant Award, visit https://www.epa.gov/inflation-reduction-act/inflation-reduction-act-community-change-grants-program.
Dylan Phillips is the editor of The Brunswick Beacon. Feel free to reach out with comments, questions and tips at dphillips@brunswickbeacon.