Communities with brownfield sites are now eligible for a portion of the approximately $169 million in grant funding for remediation of the sites, without the matching-funds requirement in some cases, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced recently.
The Brownfields Multipurpose, Assessment, Revolving Loan Fund, and Cleanup (MARC) grants, which received a $104 million boost through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL), "represents a significant investment in overburdened and under-served communities," the EPA stated in the Sept. 12 announcement. The agency stated it expects to award nearly 200 grants nationally, with grant amounts ranging between $500,000 and $2 million, according to the announcement.
Carlton Waterhouse, EPA Deputy Assistant Administrator for the Office of Land and Emergency Management, said in the announcement that the grants will benefit communities across the country by removing "longstanding barriers to brownfields reuse and spur new sustainable and environmentally just redevelopment."
“During this grant cycle, our expanded funding will allow us to address more sites plaguing under-served areas, and in some instances, award grants of greater funding levels," Waterhouse said. "In the case of our Brownfields Cleanup grants and our Revolving Loan Fund grants, the President’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law funding allows us to remove the matching funds requirements.”
Brownfield sites are properties either contaminated with or suspected of being contaminated with toxins, pollution or other hazardous substances which hinder or halt any efforts to redevelop or reuse the site. The EPA estimates there are more than 450,000 such brownfields in the U.S. Cleaning and investing in brownfield sites "increases local tax bases, facilitates job growth, utilizes existing infrastructure, takes development pressures off of undeveloped, open land, and both improves and protects the environment," according to the EPA.
The grants also support President Joseph Biden's Justice 40 initiative to ensure under-served communities receive at least 40 percent of the benefits of certain government programs, according to the statement.
"These brownfields grants are opportunities for EPA to provide much needed support to more historically overburdened communities located throughout the nation," the EPA states, "including those who have never received or applied for a brownfields grant before."
Applications are due by Nov. 22. The Office of Brownfields and Land Revitalization presents informational webinars at 2 p.m. EDT Sept. 29, Oct. 4 and Oct. 6; prior registrations is not required.
"With this funding," the EPA states, "more vacant and abandoned properties will be turned into community assets that will attract jobs and promote economic revitalization in communities."
