EPA awards $20 million in grants to non-profits to remove lead pipes and restore wetland

CEDAR GROVE, NC (WWAY) — The Environmental Protection Agency has awarded nearly $20 million in grants to Democracy Green and Working Lands Trust, two area non-profits, for two separate projects.

The majority of the grant will be used to remove lead pipes from homes in unincorporated areas of Brunswick County, like Ash and Supply.

Around 500 homes were identified by Democracy Green to have high levels of lead, with half using well water and half on sewer.

Democracy Green board president La’Meshia Whittington said this grant will work alongside efforts by Brunswick County to help as many residents as possible.

“The county is already doing a lot of work to replace pipes on their side for utility customers but we can actually go inside the house so its like a perfect marriage,” Whittington said. “They get to replace the pipes in the streets, we get to replace the pipes in the home. And for well customers or well users, we get to help them completely because they’re not on utilities. And so that would be part of 90 percent of the grant.”

Ramon Torres is the director of environmental justice for EPA region 4.

He said these grants allow people living in these communities to control how to best help and improve their situations.

“This is one extra step to go for going directly to the community because those are community-driven projects,” Torres said. “This is not an EPA project or the state project, or local government project. This is a community that really identifies the problem and they need assistance.”

The remaining 10% of the grant funding will be used to restore around 30 acres of an abandoned wetland, which Working Lands Trust will help with.

Both projects are expected to start next spring.