Thursday, March 28, 2024

EPA awards NM Environment Department $427,000 grant for hazardous waste management

The New Mexico Environment Department (NMED) recently won an Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) grant of $427,022 that it will use to develop programs to mitigate the risks to public and environmental health posed by hazardous waste facilities.

The grant, provided under the EPA’s Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA), allows the agency to address highly toxic waste, waste from pollution control devices, increased demands on natural resources due to increased populations and management of sites with facilities that were closed while still containing waste.

The NMED will receive a total of $854,044 from the EPA during fiscal year 2017, dedicated toward allowing the department to carry out enforcement, hazardous waste inspections, RCRA permitting, state authorization, program management, public information and corrective activities.

The RCRA program’s mission is to reduce and eliminate contamination and prevent any contamination that does occur from harming communities. The program also works to promote community well-being and promote sustainable lifecycle wastes and material management.