CNMI getting $5.4M grants for Rota recycling, community resilience, other programs

The CNMI is receiving $612,441 to expand recycling infrastructure and waste management systems on Rota, while the Pacific Coastal Research & Planning of Saipan is getting $4 million to build community resilience to climate stressors and food insecurity, and the Commonwealth’s Criminal Justice Planning Agency is receiving two grants worth $781,959.

Delegate Gregorio Kilili C. Sablan (D-MP) in his e-kilili newsletter over ‘the weekend’ disclosed that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced last week that the $612,441 funding for Rota recycling is from the 2021 Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and nationwide represents the largest investment in recycling in 30 years.

Sablan said the Commonwealth funding will be used to purchase and install two balers on Rota to process municipal solid waste and to build a small building to house the balers, related electrical controls, and recycled commodities.

He said the CNMI will also purchase a paper shredder and a degausser, which is a machine that removes data from devices like hard drives, to manage sensitive paper documents and electronic media.

The delegate said in addition to implementing the National Recycling Strategy and helping build a waste-free circular economy, the grant also advances the administration’s Justice40 commitment to smaller, underserved communities.

Created by the Biden-Harris administration, the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Justice40 Initiative confronts and addresses decades of underinvestment in disadvantaged communities.

For the Pacific Coastal Research & Planning of Saipan, Sablan said the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Forest Service announced last week of the $4,026,332 grant that will support agroforestry, invasive species control, and professional development to mitigate environmental hazards and promote food production.

He said the PCRP project was selected as part of USDA’s Urban and Community Forestry grant program, which is aimed at increasing equitable access to trees and nature and the benefits the provide to communities, including improving air quality, food security, and public health and safety.

Sablan said the program is funded by the Inflation Reduction Act, passed by Democrats in the last U.S. Congress and signed into law by President Joseph Biden in 2022.

PCRP calls itself a “small non-profit based on a small island, working on big issues across a very big ocean.”

On the $781,959 for CJPA, Sablan said the U.S. Department of Justice announced this week that the CJPA is receiving $621,052 for the Services, Training, Officers, Prosecutors (STOP) Violence Against Women program, a part of the Violence Against Women Act.

He said STOP funds are used to encourage partnerships with legal services and victim service organizations.

The grant provides victims of endangerment to find support within their community and with the help of law enforcement.

Sablan said the remaining $160,907 is to fulfill the CNMI Residential Substance Program by the Bureau of Justice Assistance.

He said the Residential Substance Abuse Treatment Program works toward developing a residential program for those incarcerated to have access to Substance Use Disorder (SUD) treatment services during and after their incarceration.