EPA announces $315M for cleanup, technical assistance at brownfield sites

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has announced more than $315 million through the Investing in America Agenda to expedite the assessment and cleanup of brownfield sites across the country while advancing environmental justice.

EPA selected 262 communities to receive 267 grants totaling more than $215 million in competitive EPA Brownfields funding through the Multipurpose, Assessment, Revolving Loan Fund, and Cleanup Grant (MARC) programs. This is the largest funding awarded in the history of the EPA’s Brownfields MARC Grant programs.

In addition, the agency is announcing $45 million in non-competitive supplemental funding to 22 successful existing Revolving Loan Fund Grant programs to help expedite their continued work at sites across the country by extending the capacity of the program to provide more funding for additional cleanups. EPA also is announcing selections of five Brownfields Technical Assistance Providers and three Brownfields Research Grants recipients, receiving $55 million to strengthen technical assistance.

“We’re working across the country to revitalize what were once dangerous and polluted sites in overburdened communities into more sustainable and environmentally just places that serve as community assets,” says EPA Administrator Michael S. Regan. “This critical wave of investments is the largest in Brownfield’s history and will accelerate our work to protect the people and the planet by transforming what was once blight into might.”

EPA says many communities under economic stress, particularly those in areas that have experienced long periods of disinvestment, lack the resources needed to initiate brownfield cleanup and redevelopment projects. As brownfield sites are transformed into community assets, they can attract jobs, promote economic revitalization and transform communities into sustainable and environmentally just places.