2025 Healthy Environment, Healthy Communities Grant Program

The Healthy Environment, Healthy Communities Grant Program, offered by the Chesapeake Bay Trust with Blue Water Baltimore as a program partner, aims to support community outreach, environmental action, and restoration projects within the Jones Falls Watershed. This program's foundation is rooted in a federal consent decree, resolving issues related to an industrial facility's alleged unauthorized pollutant discharges, including acetic acid. This origin clearly aligns the program with a mission to mitigate past environmental harm and promote ecological recovery and community well-being in affected areas. The program targets a broad range of beneficiaries, including Nonprofit Organizations, Community, Homeowners, and Neighborhood Associations, Faith-based Organizations, Service, Youth, and Civic Groups, State and Local Government Agencies, and Public and Independent Higher Educational Institutions. The primary impact goals are to improve water quality and ecological function, reduce health burdens from the alleged industrial polluter, enhance public education and transparency regarding water quality and pollution, and provide remediation benefits for harms to the aquatic environment. The grant program prioritizes projects falling into three main types: outreach, education, and engagement on environmental topics; environmental action projects that improve local natural resources; and watershed/environmental restoration. This focus allows for a comprehensive approach, addressing both the immediate environmental issues and the long-term community engagement and educational needs. The geographical area of focus is specifically the Jones Falls watershed, encompassing parts of Baltimore County and Baltimore City, ensuring targeted impact where the original environmental issues occurred. Expected outcomes and measurable results include tangible improvements in water quality and ecological health within the Jones Falls watershed. Additionally, the program anticipates increased public understanding of environmental issues, pollution reporting mechanisms, and regulatory frameworks. Projects are also expected to provide mitigation or remediation benefits. While specific quantitative metrics are not detailed, the emphasis on "improving water quality and/or ecological function" and "reducing health burdens/nuisances" suggests that successful projects will demonstrate measurable positive changes in these areas. From a strategic perspective, the Chesapeake Bay Trust and Blue Water Baltimore's theory of change appears to be one of targeted intervention, community empowerment, and environmental justice. By leveraging funds from a consent decree, they are directly addressing the consequences of past pollution. The program's design, which encourages diverse community involvement and supports various project types, indicates a belief that local engagement, education, and direct environmental action are crucial for sustainable ecological recovery and building healthier communities. The grant also implicitly supports local economies by encouraging contracting with locally based businesses.