EPA Releases $54.3 Million in Remediation Funds
"The grants will help transform brownfield sites, such as former manufacturing and mill sites, into productive end uses which directly benefit community residents and create opportunities, including increased housing options, recreational spaces, and jobs," said Mathy Stanislaus, assistant administrator of EPA's Office of Solid Waste and Emergency Response.
EPA recently announced it has selected 243 new brownfield grant investments, totaling $54.3 million to 147 communities nationwide, giving them the funding needed to clean up and redevelop contaminated properties. Each recipient gets $200,000 to $600,000 in funding toward EPA cooperative agreements.
"Brownfield sites, because of their locations and associated infrastructure advantages, are community assets and a key component of the Obama administration's efforts to provide tools to sustainably revitalize communities and foster economic development," said Mathy Stanislaus, assistant administrator of EPA's Office of Solid Waste and Emergency Response. "These communities have demonstrated a plan to leverage their grants and partnerships to achieve economic and environmental revitalization to meet their needs for jobs. These critical EPA resources are going into communities with populations ranging from 89 to 1.4 million, and more than half under 100,000. The grants will help transform brownfield sites, such as former manufacturing and mill sites, into productive end uses which directly benefit community residents and create opportunities, including increased housing options, recreational spaces, and jobs."
More than 30 percent of the communities have been affected by plant closures and 42 percent by natural disasters, according to EPA, which cited the small city of Palatka, Fla., which was hit by two tropical storms, the closing of a Georgia-Pacific paper towel manufacturing line, and the layoff of 130 employees from the regional water management company. The city is getting a $400,000 assessment grant.
San Antonio, Texas, is getting a $400,000 assessment grant and will focus on three priority areas to restore urban waterways, attract commercial development, construct new multifamily housing, and sustainably reuse existing buildings. About $17 million of the assessment and cleanup funding will go to applicants that are also Brownfields Area-Wide Planning grant recipients and HUD-DOT-EPA partnership communities. One is the Camden Redevelopment Agency in New Jersey, which is getting three $200,000 cleanup grant awards and a $200,000 assessment grant toward the redevelopment of a 3.6-acre mercury- and lead-contaminated Camden Laboratories site into mixed residential and commercial use.