Georgia Brownfields Grants Total $1.8 Million
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa P. Jackson has announced the availability of an estimated $1.8 million in grants to help Georgia clean up its brownfields sites.
The grants, which include $400,000 from the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act and $1.4 million from the EPA brownfields general program funding, will help revitalize former industrial and commercial sites.
The applicant selected to receive Recovery Act funds is Valdosta—$400,000 in community wide assessment funds.
Applicants selected to receive brownfields general program funds are Atlanta—$1 million in Revolving Loan Funds, which may be used in the Beltline project or other revitalization projects, and Grady County—$400,000 in community-wide assessment funds.
The grants will help to assess, clean and redevelop abandoned, contaminated properties known as brownfields. Brownfields are sites where expansion, redevelopment, or reuse may be complicated by the presence or potential presence of a hazardous substance, pollutant, or contaminant. In addition, the Small Business Liability Relief and Brownfields Revitalization Act of 2002 expanded the definition of a brownfield to include mine-scarred lands or sites contaminated by petroleum or the manufacture of illegal drugs. Grant recipients are selected through a national competition. The Brownfields Program encourages development of America's estimated 450,000 abandoned and contaminated waste sites.