EPA Announces $67 Million in FY14 Brownfield Assessment, Revolving Loan Fund, and Cleanup (ARC) Grants

EPA announced today 171 communities will receive 264 Assessment, Revolving Loan Fund, and Cleanup (ARC) grants totaling $67 million in EPA brownfield funding. These funds will give communities and businesses a chance to return economic stability to under-served and economically disadvantaged neighborhoods through the assessment and clean-up of abandoned industrial and commercial properties. 

“Not only are these funds protecting the environment and public health by helping communities clean up blighted toxic waste sites, there are new job growth opportunities for local economies to leverage through these investments," said Gina McCarthy, EPA Administrator. “With cities looking at how to combat the impacts of climate change, it's more important than ever for communities to innovate new ways to retrofit formerly polluted sites into assets for the community."
This year several projects were selected to address sites identified in their Brownfield Area Wide Planning projects, including Lowell, Mass., which will focus on revitalizing an Industrial Park and Toledo, OH, which will clean up an old transmission plant. Other selected projects include future uses such as, river walks, a sports park, manufacturing and light industrial use, an eagle sanctuary facility, and a technology corridor.
A total of approximately $23.5 million is going to communities that have been impacted by plant closures. Other selected recipients include tribes and communities in 44 states across the country; and over 50 of the grants are going to HUD-DOT-EPA grant recipient communities.
Since the inception of the EPA’s Brownfield Program in 1995, cumulative brownfield program investments have leveraged more than $21 billion from a variety of public and private sources for cleanup and redevelopment activities. This equates to an average of $17.79 leveraged per EPA brownfield dollar expended. These investments have resulted in approximately 93,000 jobs nationwide. These projects demonstrate the positive impact a small investment of federal brownfield funding can have on community revitalization through leveraging jobs, producing clean energy, and providing recreation opportunities for surrounding neighborhoods. EPA’s Brownfield Program empowers states, communities, and other stakeholders to work together to prevent, assess, safely clean up, and sustainably reuse brownfield sites.
More information on brownfield grants by state: http://cfpub.epa.gov/bf_factsheets/
More information on EPA’s brownfields:
Program http://www.epa.gov/brownfields/
Success Stories http://www.epa.gov/brownfields/success/index.htm
Program Accomplishments http://epa.gov/brownfields/overview/bf-monthly-report.html