Friday, May 3, 2013

News Release: EPA Awards $4 Million to Help Support Cleanup and Reuse of Brownfields Sites Across the Country

WASHINGTON - The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) will
 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/areawide_grants.htm

 More information on the Partnership for Sustainable Communities:
 http://www.sustainablecommunities.gov/