PROVIDENCE — More than half a year after the Trump administration canceled or rescinded billions of dollars in federal grants, some environmental justice efforts continue to stall in Rhode Island as a result.

The Environmental Protection Agency in the last year of the Biden administration awarded about $22 million to six different state agencies and local nonprofits to fund, among other things, the state’s compost capacity, to build awareness of lead service pipes transporting drinking water, and to study asthma in Rhode Island.

Much of the funding came from two signature legislative achievements of the Biden administration: the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) and the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA), also known as the Build Back Better Act.

Those two pieces of legislation ensured billions in federal funding began flowing to Rhode Island for a number of environmental-related projects that never had federal funding before.

But the Trump administration this past spring embarked on a campaign of slashing or rolling back much of the spending from the Biden acts, including money for environmental justice grants.

The federal freeze hit close to home.

The Rhode Island Food Policy Council, which last year was awarded an $18.7 million environmental justice community grant from the EPA, laid off three staff members due to the Trump administration rescinding federal money.

“The work of the Rhode Island Food Policy Council depends in part on federal grants which are now frozen,” wrote the Providence-based nonprofit in an April newsletter announcing the layoffs. “As a result, and with heavy hearts, we made the difficult decision to cut three valuable staff positions.”

Farm Fresh Rhode Island, the state’s chief food incubator hub since 2004, has seen the brunt of federal funding cuts firsthand: 40% of its budget comes from the federal government, and it’s the designated administrative entity for a number of U.S. Department of Agriculture grants and programs.

Delite Primus, advancement director for Farm Fresh, said two USDA-funded programs were cut early in March: the Local Food Purchasing Agreement and the Local Food for Schools program, both of which facilitate procurement of locally grown produce for use in food pantries and school meal programs.

Primus said Farm Fresh expected to get another $3 million total for both programs; around $1.7 million for the school purchasing program and another $1.25 million for the local food purchasing agreement. A portion of the money set aside to buy local food for schools was designated for early childhood education centers, a new expansion to the program Primus said was added last fall.

“A lot of the local fruit and vegetable farmers, the fisheries, the food producers around the state, a lot of them are smaller farmers that were benefiting from this,” Primus said. “They have really been able to grow their operations because of these markets, and the funding that was available to support these purchases.”

As a result of the USDA cuts, Primus said Farm Fresh had to lay off four people related to the local purchasing grants, an unusual move in the nonprofit space, where it’s rare for funding that had been previously awarded to get cut.

The Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management received a $944,618 Environmental Justice Government-to-Government grant, which the agency was going to use to support local nonprofits engaged in environmental justice initiatives. The EPA notified DEM on March 31 that the federal agency would be terminating the remainder of the grant.

A spokesperson for DEM told ecoRI News the agency submitted a letter disputing the withdrawal of funds, but the EPA ultimately denied the dispute letter on Oct. 2, writing that “it is within the Agency’s discretion to determine that a given grant award no longer effectuates the program goals of Agency priorities and to terminate the award.”

“Before the grant was terminated, DEM was able to spend $355,101.57 in grant awards,” said Kim Keough, DEM’s chief of public affairs.

That grant money was going to DEM’s Community Conversations initiative, where agency staff held public presentations and workshops about some of the legacy pollution lingering in the state’s air, land, and water.

The original grants were a big boost for local efforts for environmental justice issues in Rhode Island. In the past few years DEM has issued its own environmental justice policy and definitions, including a map of identified environmental justice areas around the state, but regulations with teeth and the force of law remain elusive.

Efforts in the General Assembly to enact environmental justice legislation have gone nowhere. The Environmental Justice Act, introduced annually by lawmakers in the House and Senate, would allow departments like DEM and the Coastal Resources Management Council to consider cumulative impacts when siting industrial projects.

Industrial and polluted areas, such as the Port of Providence, tend to exist in a positive-feedback loop. Once a single industrial or pollution-intensive industry sets up shop somewhere — typically a POC neighborhood, whose community members have little political power — it becomes much easier for like-minded industries to locate nearby.

The Environmental Justice Act would give another layer of authority to state agencies, allowing them to weigh the cumulative impact each new permit application will have on the surrounding area in tandem with existing businesses. Currently, DEM is only allowed to examine the impact a singular project will have on the area; anything more is likely to be overturned by the courts.

The withdrawal of federal grants is likely to set back environmental justice efforts in Rhode Island by years. Without federal dollars, many of the planned projects are unlikely to happen.

The Nature Conservancy of Rhode Island received $500,000 to address tree canopy inequities in and around the Providence area. The grant was rescinded by the Trump administration earlier this year, and The Nature Conservancy has filed no lawsuit in District Court to get the funds back.

A spokesperson for The Nature Conservancy declined to provide comment or details on the grant.