BALTIMORE (Map, News) - Activist Anne Pearson spent a decade establishing relationships among environmental organizations, businesses and governments.

“You can’t accomplish — politically — the goals that are necessary to make progress” without these connections, she said.

In an effort to help local environmentalists such as Pearson strengthen these relationships, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is offering grants to help build bonds among organizations in the name of reducing air, land and water pollution.

Through the Community Action for a Renewed Environment program, EPA awards funds to community-based partnerships aiming to reduce air, water or land pollution.

Pearson said she is looking into whether her nonprofit, Alliance for Community Education, which aims to reduce pollution from storm-water runoff, can apply for the program. The grant program would allow her to reinforce the working relationships among organizations, she said.

The CARE grant program has awarded about $3 million a year to groups around the country since 2005, said EPA spokeswoman Donna Heron. The EPA is accepting proposals through mid-March.

In EPA’s region 3, which covers Maryland, Washington, D.C., Virginia, Pennsylvania and West Virginia, grants have funded programs to clean up Philadelphia’s ports and restore the Elizabeth River in Virginia, according to the EPA. No Maryland groups have received funding, Heron said.

Last year, more than 20 communities received grants, which range from $75,000 to $300,000 and are awarded to identify priorities or support established partnerships.

Federal grants are “wonderful opportunities” but shouldn’t be relied on as the primary funding source, said Joanne Throwe, assistant director of the Environmental Finance Center at the University of Maryland, College Park, which provides communities with information on where to find innovative funding for environmental programs.

“We try to steer clear from saying, ‘Here is a grant that will pay for what you want to do,’ ” she said.

“The pot often isn’t very big.”

smichael@baltimoreexaminer.com