This agreement provides funding under the inflation reduction act to the bronx river alliance

The recipient will train undeserved, diverse students and residents of the bronx as well as yonkers and mount vernon in westchester county, new york about water quality issues affecting their community. Through water quality sampling, students and residents will learn about the health of their local ecosystem and its water quality. The project will enable hiring an urban waterways environmental justice fellow recruited from local communities who will work with local stakeholders to carry out pathogen water quality monitoring, additional monitoring of high polluting outfalls identified through the project, and edna testing. Data revealing the environmental health of these waterways for people and wildlife will be analyzed and visualized to be accessible and useful to the public. Public education and outreach including community-based macroinvertebrate studies and public events will take place with stakeholders in each community to discuss solutions to regional water quality issues.activities:the activities include pathogen water quality monitoring, additional monitoring of high polluting outfalls identified through the project, and edna testing. As well as, public education and outreach including community-based macroinvertebrate studies and public events will take place with stakeholders in each community to discuss solutions to regional water quality issues. The recipient will use education and training to increase awareness of how critical environmental issues impact the health of residents and the local ecosystem.subrecipient:bronx river alliance, INC will issue subawards under this cooperative agreement. Subaward activities will include, project coordination, recruiting and training volunteers on sampling procedures, water quality monitoring, data analysis and public outreach and education. Outcomes:the anticipated deliverables include project qapp approved by EPA, pathogen samples collected and analyzed, DNA samples collected and analyzed, community science volunteers trained, english language one-pagers produced, 25 translated-pagers (5 languages total), outreach events, public meetings, social media posts and a mainstream media article. Expected outcomes and outputs are to increase community awareness of the water issues and their potential health effects, educational content for students and community members for both in-person and online. The intended beneficiaries for this project are students and residents of underserved communities in the bronx and westchester counties, new york.