News

PHILADELPHIA (April 22, 2021) — The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is announcing the selection of West Virginia University Research Corporation as one of six organizations to receive a total of $11 million in grants nationwide to provide training and technical assistance to communities.

The work is being funded by EPA’s Technical Assistance to Brownfields (TAB) Program.  West Virginia University Corporation will receive $1 million total over a five-year period to provide technical assistance primarily to underserved and economically disadvantaged neighborhoods in the Mid-Atlantic Region (EPA Region 3) where environmental cleanup and new jobs are needed most. This assistance is available to all stakeholders and comes at no cost to communities. It is an important part of the Biden-Harris Administration’s commitment to advance economic opportunities and address environmental justice issues in disadvantaged communities.

Water researchers at West Virginia University hope to turn a pollutant – acid mine drainage - into a technological resource through the continuation of a $2.1 million contract from the National Energy Technology Laboratory. 

The West Virginia Water Research Institute, a program of the Energy Institute at WVU, earned the funding to explore a nationwide supply chain, based on acid mine drainage treatment, that would produce at least 400 tons of rare earth elements and critical materials each year.