BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — The Trump administration has terminated a federal grant that funded community air quality monitoring in North Birmingham, a historically Black neighborhood long burdened by industrial pollution and environmental neglect[1][2]. The $75,000 grant, awarded to the Greater Birmingham Alliance to Stop Pollution (GASP), supported efforts to train residents to monitor air pollution in neighborhoods surrounding the shuttered coke plants that have defined the area’s environmental crisis.
The EPA cited a “misalignment with agency priorities” in ending the grant, a move that environmental advocates say will strip residents of critical data needed to document ongoing exposures and advocate for further cleanup. The neighborhoods of Collegeville, Harriman Park, and Fairmont, all part of the 35th Avenue Superfund site, remain among the most polluted in the country, with residents facing elevated risks from airborne toxins and contaminated soil.
North Birmingham’s industrial legacy stretches back more than a century, with coke production fueling the city’s growth while leaving a toxic inheritance. In the early 20th century, discriminatory housing policies forced Black families to live closest to the factories, exposing generations to hazardous emissions and waste. By 2009, the EPA found dangerous levels of carcinogens such as benzo(a)pyrene in neighborhood yards, prompting the 2012 Superfund designation.
Despite millions spent by the EPA on cleanup, the area has not been placed on the National Priorities List, and progress has been slow. City officials, including Mayor Randall Woodfin, have pressed for more federal support and comprehensive solutions, but funding gaps and bureaucratic delays persist. The Trump administration’s grant termination comes as the community continues to face disproportionate health risks and limited transparency about ongoing pollution.
Advocates warn that without community air monitoring, North Birmingham residents will have fewer tools to hold polluters accountable and to push for the remediation and redevelopment the area desperately needs.