EPA Grants Encourage Brownfields Cleanup
Mike Slater and Brooks Stanfield, brownfields project officers for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) Region 10, recently offered a workshop on strategies for preparing competitive applications for EPA brownfield assessment and cleanup grants. November 14, 2008, is the deadline for the next round of grant applications. Selection and announcements are scheduled for April/May 2009 with grant disbursements likely in October 2009.
A $180,000 cleanup grant to the City of Portland recently helped to clean up petroleum contamination at a former gas station and service center site, and a $200,000 assessment grant enabled Metro to expand its brownfields inventory, prioritize sites and conduct several Phase I and Phase II environmental site assessments. Click here for a listing of all grants issued by the EPA to Oregon entities.
EPA assessment grants fund brownfield inventories, planning, environmental assessments and community outreach. Up to $350,000 per site is available to assess sites with suspected hazardous and/or petroleum contamination. EPA cleanup grants fund cleanup activities at brownfield sites, up to $200,000 per site at a maximum of three sites. Brownfield grants are not available to private parties. Eligible entities include non-profit organizations, general purpose units of local government, land clearance authorities or other quasi-governmental entities, regional council or redevelopment agencies, and states.
Slater and Stanfield reminded workshop participants that community need and community involvement are key components of a successful grant application. EPA’s innovative brownfields grant program pairs local governments with the communities they seek to improve. The program can empower depressed communities not only by stimulating the local economy and reducing threats to human health, but also by promoting discourse and solutions to problems by the stakeholders themselves.
More information about the grants is available here.
Post authored by Jeanette Schuster, attorney practicing in the Sustainability and Real Estate and Land Use Practice Groups.
