Grants and contracts databases offer a handy but oft-forgotten tool for environmental journalists seeking to better understand the daily business of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

Grants and contracts are a key way that the agency extends the reach of its work into the world beyond agency offices. They may include an engineering project to clean up a Superfund site, an environmental education and outreach program, snow-plowing agency parking lots, expert studies, and computer services.

You can find EPA's Grant Awards Database, searchable and online, here. [2] You can find much more information about EPA's grant program, including information about suspension and debarment of grantees, here. [3]  Further information on a range of agencies beyond EPA is available in the Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance, which you can get to from here. [4]

There are several ways to explore EPA contracts. The simplest and most immediately relevant is the EPA Active Contracts Listing. [5] It is arranged by vendor name or contract number and is available in pdf or spreadsheet format. A wider range of contextual information is available here. [6]

Another approach would be to use the government-wide FedConnect system. [7] It requires registration. Yet another portal is the Federal Procurement Data System. [8] It also requires registration.