EPA awards Gonzaga $19.9 million to prepare Spokane for deadly effects of climate change

Jul. 25—Gonzaga University has been awarded a $19.9 million grant from the EPA to help prepare Spokane and its most vulnerable residents for the climate change crisis.

The funding will go toward retrofitting hundreds of homes with heat pumps and high-quality air filtration systems, updating community centers to guard against extreme weather and other climate resiliency projects. While the Gonzaga Institute for Climate, Water, and the Environment acts as a pass-thru for the funds, many aspects of the grant will be implemented by other organizations, including Spokane Neighborhood Action Partners, the City of Spokane, Spokane Public Library and the Carl Maxey Center.

Announced Thursday morning, the $19,904,367 grant is part of the $3 billion Inflation Reduction Act signed into law by President Joe Biden in 2022. The Spokane-area project is one of 21 announced climate change-related projects funded by the law across the country.

"These two organizations came together and looked at what can we be doing to reduce indoor air pollution and energy costs for disadvantaged low-income communities and what they did is put together a proposal that's going to result in hundreds of new heat pumps and high quality air filtration systems being installed throughout the Spokane community," EPA Regional Administrator Stacy Sixkiller said.

Institute for Climate, Water, and the Environment Director Brian G. Henning said the award is the largest single grant in Gonzaga's history.

"We're just so excited here at the Gonzaga Climate Institute to be receiving the significant federal resources to be able to advance climate resilience in our community," he said.

These funds will not be aimed at solutions to the climate crisis itself. The grant funding will instead be used to help Spokane adapt to ever increasing extreme weather.

"We're living in an age of a changed climate and as that problem grows there are community members in Spokane who are disproportionately affected. This grant will help communities to adapt," Henning said.

While Spokane must prepare for the effects of the climate crisis, the public and policy makers must realize "we can't just adapt our way out of this problem," he added.

About $8 million of the grant is designated for SNAP, which will install new heating pumps and air filtration systems in 300 Spokane homes for free. These upgrades will provide these households more reliable heating and cooling as well as maintaining clean air in the home during smoke season. The organization will also install an air quality monitor.

Families whose income is below 200% of the federal poverty line will be eligible for these upgrades. The improvements would cost each homeowner approximately $21,000 if paid for out of pocket.

SNAP's Director of Housing Services John Hoover said he was "happy beyond words" the grant had been approved by the EPA.

"These funds target adversely impacted communities and folks who can't make these improvements on their own. You only have to look at the past two weeks to see those 300 households will be living with horrendous heat and smoke and need help," Hoover said.

Another $8 million will be appropriated to the City of Spokane and Spokane Public Library to add new infrastructure to existing city-owned buildings. These properties will be used as places to gather during extreme weather events. Upgrades include solar panels and battery backups that place the facilities on their own microgrid.

City buildings that will be upgraded include West Central Community Center, Northeast Community Center, Central Public Library and Liberty Park Library. Another $900,000 will be appropriated to make the same improvements at the Carl Maxey Center.

"We have seen our community turn to the Library as a safe space time and again in extreme cold, heat, smoke, and windstorms as a climate resiliency center," Spokane Public Library Executive Director Andrew Chanse said in a statement.

"This grant will help bolster resiliency in our community and infrastructure and allow us to provide even more support for our vulnerable populations."

Spokane Mayor Lisa Brown said in a statement that "building climate resiliency" is a priority for her administration.

"The Spokane Climate Resilience Project brings together strong partners to target eight strategies aligned with our Sustainability Action Plan, and EPA grant funding will go a long way toward implementing these strategies to keep community members safe during extreme weather," she said.

Another $2.7 million is designated as a "Climate Action Fund" administered by Gonzaga's Climate Institute. This fund will provide minigrants to community organizations who are doing climate-resilience work. It will also provide scholarships for nine Spokane residents to join Gonzaga's course for a certificate in climate action planning.

"We're really hoping that this will be an opportunity to empower the organizations in Spokane that are already doing really great work and just enable them to continue and expand that work," said Dante Jester, climate resilience program manager for Gonzaga.

Senator Patty Murray said in a statement this support is "exactly the kind of support and resources our local partners need to cut down on pollution and make sure our communities are climate ready."

Sixkiller said these adaptations are vital to ensure Spokane residents' safety as climate change creates more frequent extreme weather.

"There's no question that the Spokane area and the entire Pacific Northwest is seeing a very rapid change, particularly around extreme weather patterns. Unfortunately, that is especially true of regular impacts from wildfire smoke, whether that's in the adjacent area to Spokane or even to the north from Canada."

Sixkiller called the application "incredibly compelling" and an example of a "filter-up approach" rather than a top-down mandate.

"Thanks to President Biden's advocacy for the Inflation Reduction Act, we now have a brand new program to help meet those needs. It's a $2 billion grant program and it's the largest investment in environmental and climate justice in our nation's history," he said.