award approximately $4 million in grants to 20 communities across the
country to assist with planning for cleanup and reuse of Brownfields
properties. This funding is part of the Brownfields Area-Wide (BF
AWP) Planning program, which aims to promote community revitalization
by using cleanups to stimulate local economies and protect people’s
health and the environment. EPA’s Brownfields program encourages the
redevelopment of abandoned and potentially contaminated waste sites
across the country.
“EPA continues to respond to Brownfields challenges in communities of
every size by encouraging strong public-private partnerships and
promoting innovative and creative ways to assess, clean up and
redevelop Brownfields sites,” said Mathy Stanislaus, assistant
administrator for EPA’s Office of Solid Waste and Emergency Response.
“The area-wide planning approach recognizes that revitalization of the
area surrounding the Brownfields sites is critical to the successful
reuse of the property as cleanup and redevelopment of an individual
site. The locally-driven planning process will help communities create
a shared vision for and commitment to revitalization.”
EPA will award up to $200,000 per recipient so they can engage the
community and conduct Brownfields planning activities for an area,
such as a neighborhood, downtown district, city block, former
industrial area or local commercial corridor.
In 2010, EPA launched the BF AWP program as a pilot program with the
goal of adopting a more broad approach into the existing Brownfields
grant programs. Since its inception, all EPA’s Brownfields investments
have leveraged more than $19 billion in cleanup and redevelopment.
Over the years, the relatively small investment of federal funding has
been able to leverage more than 87,000 jobs from both public and
private sources.
This is the second round of grants awarded under the BF AWP program.
EPA’s BF AWP program is part of the Partnership for Sustainable
Communities collaboration among EPA and the Departments of
Transportation (DOT) and Housing and Urban Development (HUD). The
Partnership for Sustainable Communities ensures that the agencies
consider affordable housing, transportation, and environmental
protection in concert to create healthier communities. The
partnership is helping communities across the country to create
attractive housing choices, make transportation more efficient and
reliable, reinforce existing infrastructure investments, and support
vibrant and healthy neighborhoods that attract businesses.
More information on the grant recipients:
http://epa.gov/brownfields/
More information on the Partnership for Sustainable Communities:
http://www.