Richmond and Contra Costa County are set to receive $23.6 million from the Bay Area Air District to fund community air-quality and public health projects, officials announced. The money breaks down to $10.7 million for the city of Richmond and $12.9 million for the county, both flowing through a program built specifically to reinvest penalties collected from polluters back into the neighborhoods that breathe their emissions.
According to The Mercury News, the funding comes through Bay REPAIR, the Air District's Reinvesting Penalties for Air Improvement and Resilience program. The grants will be distributed among local nonprofits working on climate education, urban forestry, clean energy and greener transportation options. Among the awardees named are Urban Tilth, an agriculture education nonprofit based in North Richmond; Rising Juntos, a social justice organization; The Watershed Project, which works to protect the Bay Area's natural water sources; and Richmond Trees, which seeks to expand the city's urban canopy.
The scale of interest in the program was enormous. The Air District received 125 grant applications seeking funding that, combined, exceeded hundreds of millions of dollars, far outstripping what was available. A panel of 55 technical and community reviewers graded submissions on project feasibility, community need, budget request and project readiness before the Air District's board of directors approved the recommended list of awardees on Oct. 7.
A Program Born From Decades Of Industrial Pollution
Contra Costa County Supervisor and Air District board member John Gioia called the announcement historic, speaking at the RYSE Youth Center in Richmond, per the same Mercury News report. Community residents have experienced harm from industrial pollution for decades, and the grant funds themselves are sourced directly from air quality violation penalties levied by the Air District against polluters. Refineries are counted among the largest air-quality violators and among the top generators of harmful particulate matter, which can contribute to cancer, strokes, heart attacks and other respiratory diseases.
Per Air District data cited in the report, the Chevron Richmond refinery alone accounts for about 63 percent of particulate matter released in Richmond. Air District Executive Officer Phillip Fine said penalty money is being sent back to residents to decide how to reinvest it in their own community, the outlet notes. Community-requested investments have included shade trees, clean energy upgrades in homes, transit passes and asthma resources.
Richmond officials have been clear that they would rather these violations never happen in the first place. Richmond Mayor Eduardo Martinez said that reinvesting penalties does not replace strong regulation and oversight, according to the same account.
Filling A Gap Left By A Canceled Federal Grant
Part of what makes this funding significant locally is what it is meant to replace. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency awarded a $19 million grant during the Biden administration to the North Richmond Community Resilience Initiative in 2023, intended to fund climate-resilient infrastructure, green-job training and environmental remediation. The Trump administration canceled that grant in 2025, the Mercury News reports, and the new Air District award will help complete projects that Urban Tilth and Contra Costa County had originally intended to fund with that federal money.
Urban Tilth has described the cancellation bluntly on its own website, saying the EPA suddenly pulled the plug with no warning, no explanation and no alternative plan, putting planned jobs and projects at risk. The initiative was built on partnerships between Contra Costa County's Department of Conservation and Development and local organizations including Urban Tilth. Among the shelved plans: removing nearly 12,000 square feet of asphalt and planting more than 65 trees at the Verde K-8 schoolyard, and a North Richmond Home Energy Infrastructure Enhancement Program that would retrofit 40 homes to be fully electric. The broader initiative had outlined strategies spanning green infrastructure, mobility and transportation, energy-efficient housing, and workforce development.
Years Of Groundwork In North Richmond
This isn't the first time these groups have worked to green North Richmond's streets. The Watershed Project planted its first trees in the area back in 2015 and partnered with Contra Costa County in 2017 to expand the effort. That collaboration, known as the North Richmond Watershed Connections project, combined green infrastructure, an expanded tree canopy, and improved walkability and bicycle access, and was completed in 2023 after the team installed its first 50 trees and developed a maintenance and operations plan.
The momentum has since reached county planning circles: the Contra Costa Sustainability Commission has voted to incorporate an urban forestry program into Envision Contra Costa 2040, using the North Richmond toolkit as a model for a countywide approach, according to The Watershed Project.
What Comes Next
Grant funds are expected to be distributed by spring 2027, with the resulting programs spanning two to five years depending on the project. Applicants not selected in this round may still receive grants later as the Air District collects additional violation penalties, and the agency is already developing a future grant program focused on the Martinez area.
Air District Community Investment Officer Emi Wang said the grant process is intended to be transparent, intentional and community-driven, according to the Mercury News account. For a region that has spent years tallying the health costs of refinery emissions, the hope is that this round of funding, however it is ultimately divided among the specific nonprofits, keeps that promise closer to the ground than the federal money ever got the chance to.
