Downwinders at Risk, a nonprofit focused on clean air and environmental justice, is one of 350 grant recipients affected by the termination of an EPA program.
DALLAS — Downwinders at Risk, a local nonprofit focused on air quality and environmental justice, is suing the Trump administration after an EPA grant program was cancelled, scuttling plans to expand the nonprofit’s air monitoring program.
The nonprofit joined a coalition of other nonprofits, tribes and local governments that are suing to restore the EPA’s Environmental and Climate Justice grant programs, according to a press release from Downwinders at Risk.
The organization was awarded $500,000 in February 2025 to expand the SharedAirDFW network to install and upgrade air monitors in at-risk communities, the release states. The funding would have been used to upgrade air monitors in three Dallas neighborhoods, including Joppa, West Dallas and Highland Hills. The grant also would have allowed Downwinders to install monitors in:
- The Cedars, Dallas
- Floral Farms, Dallas
- Tenth Street, Dallas
- Central Arlington
- Echo Heights, Fort Worth
- Northside, Fort Worth
Residents in several of the impacted neighborhoods, such as Joppa and West Dallas, have reported experiencing negative health impacts due to industrial pollution and poor air quality, WFAA previously reported.
“The termination of grant agreements disrupts our community-driven air quality data collection and community engagement that are essential for addressing environmental health disparities,” Caleb Roberts, executive director of Downwinders at Risk, said. “Frontline communities in Dallas-Fort Worth have fought for years to establish a hyperlocal air monitoring network to combat the generations of racist zoning and top-down land use planning that have created environmental injustices.”
Earthjustice, Southern Environmental Law Center, Public Rights Project, and Lawyers for Good Government filed the lawsuit on behalf of the grant recipients, the release states.
The EPA program was created in 2022 when Congress passed the Inflation Reduction Act, which awarded $3 billion in grants to address the climate crisis and environmental harms at the local level, the release states.
The lawsuit claims the termination of this funding is unconstitutional.
“Unlawfully ending this program threatens the ability of local governments to protect their people and the environment,” Jon Miller, chief program officer with the Public Rights Project, said.