The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced $6,390,000 in grant awards from President Biden's Investing in America agenda on May 20, 2024. The funds are aimed at expediting the assessment and cleanup of brownfield sites in Vermont while advancing environmental justice. These investments through EPA's Brownfields Multipurpose, Assessment, and Cleanup (MAC) Grant Programs and Revolving Loan Fund (RLF) Grant Programs will help transform once-polluted, vacant, and abandoned properties into community assets.
Two communities in Vermont have been selected to receive two grants totaling nearly $3 million in competitive EPA Brownfields funding through the MAC Grant programs. In addition, the agency is announcing $3.5 million in supplemental funding to one existing high-performing Brownfields RLF Grant Program to expedite their continued work at sites in Vermont.
EPA Administrator Michael S. Regan announced the awards alongside Philadelphia Mayor Cherelle Parker and U.S. Representative Mary Gay Scanlon at a local brownfield site near Bartram's Mile. The City of Philadelphia has been working to reclaim brownfield sites along Bartram's Mile, transforming them into a community hub where residents can access trails for hiking and biking as well as areas for fishing, gardening, farming and more.
"Far too many communities across America have suffered the harmful economic and health consequences of living near polluted brownfield sites," said President Joe Biden. "Under my Administration, we are making that a reality by ensuring the historic resources from my Investing in America agenda reach communities that need it most."
EPA Administrator Michael S. Regan echoed this sentiment: "President Biden sees contaminated sites and blighted areas as an opportunity to invest in healthier, revitalized communities."
David W. Cash, EPA Regional Administrator added: "Brownfields grants are gamechangers—they turn polluted, abandoned sites into thriving community spaces."
U.S Senator Peter Welch also praised these investments, stating that they will play a key role in strengthening the economic wellbeing of underserved communities in Vermont.
The Brownfields Program advances President Biden's Justice40 Initiative, which aims to ensure that 40% of the overall benefits of certain Federal investments flow to disadvantaged communities. Approximately 86% of the MAC and RLF Supplemental program applications selected to receive funding proposed to work in areas that include disadvantaged communities.
Thanks to the historic $1.5 billion boost from President Biden's Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, EPA's Brownfields Program is helping more communities than ever before begin to address the economic, social, and environmental challenges caused by brownfields.
EPA's Brownfields Program began in 1995 and has provided nearly $2.7 billion in Brownfield Grants to assess and clean up contaminated properties and return blighted properties to productive reuse. More than half of the funding available for this grant cycle (approximately $160 million) comes from the historic $1.5 billion investment from President Biden's Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.
