PHMSA 08-22
Contact:  PHMSA Public Affairs
Email:  PHMSAPublicAffairs@dot.gov

Washington – The U.S. Department of Transportation’s Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) announced today that it is awarding $32.4 million in grants to states, territories, and tribes to support first responders and strengthen local efforts to respond to hazardous materials incidents. 

“First responders are at the forefront of community and environmental safety,” said PHMSA Deputy Administrator Tristan Brown. “These grants will provide local emergency responders with the necessary training and resources they need to respond to hazardous materials transportation incidents.”

PHMSA is awarding 81 grants for six different hazardous materials safety grant programs across the country. This year’s awards signify a 14 percent increase in the number of grantees receiving awards and a 12.5 percent increase in total grant funding. This includes approximately: 

• $24.2 million for Hazardous Materials Emergency Preparedness grants for states, territories, and tribes to aid in the development, implementation, and improvement of emergency plans for local and tribal communities and first-responder hazardous materials training.
• $3.8 million in Hazardous Materials Instructor Training grants to support the training of hazardous materials instructors that train hazardous materials employees.
• $1.7 million in Supplemental Public Sector Training grants to support non-profit organizations that train hazardous materials instructors to conduct first responder trainings.
• $1.2 million in Assistance for Local Emergency Response Training grants to support the training of volunteer or remote emergency responders to respond to incidents involving hazardous materials shipments by rail.
• $1 million in Community Safety grants to support projects that enhance the capabilities of communities to respond to hazardous materials emergencies and the training of state and local enforcement personnel responsible for enforcing the safe transport of hazardous materials. 
• $414,000 in Hazardous Materials State Inspection grants to cover costs for state-run hazardous materials shipper inspections to include personnel, travel, equipment, supplies, and training for hazardous materials inspectors.

Last year, PHMSA awarded 71 grants totaling $28.7 million that aided communities’ preparedness and response for hazardous materials transportation emergencies. This included developing or updating emergency response plans, commodity flow studies, and training thousands of emergency responders nationwide.  

PHMSA’s Fiscal Year 2022 priority is directed towards ensuring that underserved communities are prepared and trained to respond to hazardous materials transportation emergencies. This includes community response planning and training for fire, law-enforcement, and public safety access point personnel. PHMSA has done this by increasing outreach to communities and Local Emergency Planning Committees (LEPCs), by having grantees address working with underserved communities in their grant applications, and most recently by hosting a three-day Hazardous Materials Grant Conference in Virginia. The conference included representatives from every state and for the first time had representatives from five U.S. territories. The purpose of the conference was to provide program updates, share best practices, and encourage funding to disadvantaged communities. This effort helps carry out President Biden’s Executive Order 13985, Advancing Racial Equity and Support for Underserved Communities Through the Federal Government (86 FR 7009).

The Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration develops and enforces regulations for the safe, reliable, and environmentally sound operation of the nation's 3.3-million-mile pipeline transportation system and the nearly 1.2 million daily shipments of hazardous materials by land, sea, and air. Please visit https://www.phmsa.dot.gov for more information.

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