WASHINGTON (EPA) – The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced Oct. 15 that it is seeking applicants for a total of $1.5 million in environmental-justice small grants to be awarded in 2013. EPA’s environmental-justice efforts aim to ensure equal environmental and health protections for all Americans, regardless of race or socioeconomic status. The grants enable nonprofit organizations to conduct research, provide education and develop solutions to local health and environmental issues in communities overburdened by harmful pollution.

Although he spent 35 years as a Congressman representing northeastern Minnesota, former Representative Jim Oberstar points to something he helped achieve before being elected to Congress as one of his proudest legislative accomplishments. In late 1971, while on the staff of his Congressional predecessor John Blatnik, Oberstar was Administrator to the House Committee on Public Works. As the lead staff representative on this committee, Oberstar played a key role in writing what is today considered landmark legislation.

On October 23, from 1:00 to 3:00 p.m. ET, EPA's Watershed Academy will host a webinar for water-quality managers and others to learn about the new Water-Quality Portal for water-quality data The portal brings together chemical, physical and microbiological data from EPA's Storage and Retrieval Data Warehouse and USGS's National Water Information System for scientists, policy-makers, and the public in a single, user-friendly web interface, while reducing the burden of searching, compiling, and formatting water monitoring data for analysis.

As the presidential campaign reaches its climax heading toward Nov. 6, both major party candidates are out on the trail courting all types of voters and gathering as many supporters as they can get - both urban and rural.

In the last week or so, the campaigns have produced the resources below, which provide their views on rural America. While all of these resources focus heavily on agriculture, there is an occasional mention of infrastructure.