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EPA Awards $1 Million in Brownfields Grants to Programs in North Carolina

Release Date: 05/10/2005
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( Atlanta - May 10, 2005) The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced today that it has awarded $1 million in Brownfields Grants to help communities in North Carolina revitalize former industrial and commercial sites, transforming them from problem properties into community assets. The Brownfields Program empowers states, communities, and other stakeholders in economic development to work together to prevent, assess, safely clean up, and sustainably reuse brownfields. Participants in the brownfields program gain access to expertise and other resources from more than 20 federal agencies.

A brownfield site is real property, the expansion, redevelopment, or reuse of which may be complicated by the presence or potential presence of harmful contaminants. The Brownfields Program promotes redevelopment of America's estimated 450,000 abandoned and contaminated waste sites. Since its inception in 1995, the program has awarded 709 assessment grants totaling more than $190 million, 189 revolving loan fund grants worth more than $165 million, and $26.8 million for 150 cleanup grants.  

In addition to facilitating industrial and commercial redevelopment, brownfields projects have converted industrial waterfronts to river-front parks, landfills to golf courses, rail corridors to recreational trails, and gas station sites to housing. EPA's brownfields assistance has led to more than $7 billion in public and private investment in cleanup and redevelopment, helped create more than 31,000 jobs, and resulted in the assessment of more than 5,100 properties.

Grants announced today include:

Rocky Mount , N.C. , Brownfields Assessment Grant $182,750 for hazardous substances/$200,000 cleanup grant for hazardous substances

The city of Rocky Mount will use assessment grant funds to conduct lead, asbestos, and other contaminant assessments in buildings in the Douglas Block project area. Funds also will be used to prepare remedial plans. Cleanup grant funds will be used to clean up the three-acre property in the Douglas Block area where the Old Fenner and Cobb Carlton tobacco warehouses used to stand. The land has been found to be contaminated with heavy metals, particularly arsenic.

Western Piedmont Council of Governments, Western North Carolina B rownfields Assessment Grant $200,000 for hazardous substances

The Western Piedmont Council of Governments will use grant funds to create a brownfields inventory, and perform at least one site assessment in each of the four member counties. Funds also will be used for cleanup planning.

Concurrent Technologies Corporation, Southeast North Carolina Brownfields Job Training Grant $200,000

Concurrent Technologies Corporation will use grant funds to train 75 students, place 60 graduates in environmental jobs, and track students for one year. The 240-hour training program includes HAZWOPER, OSHA Class I/asbestos emergency response, asbestos abatement, and innovative and alternative treatment technologies instruction. Other courses include lead worker, mold remediation, OSHA general industry standards, heavy equipment operation and safety, and hazardous materials handling and shipping. Students will be recruited from the Lumbee Tribe and residents of Robeson, Scotland, and Cumberland Counties, North Carolina. Graduates will be placed in environmental jobs through CTC contacts and the Center for Indian Health and Environmental Technologies, the non-profit affiliate of Porter Scientific, Inc.

Winton-Salem , N.C. , Brownfields Job Training Grant $183,000

The City of Winston-Salem will use grant funds to train up to 40 students, place 26 graduates in environmental technician jobs, and track students for one year. The training program will offer 214 hours of course work, including HAZWOPER, eight-hour HAZMAT, air quality issues, assessments and field testing, soil and water management, field observation, and introduction to technology and remediation. An additional eight hours of HAZWOPER recertification will be provided. Forsyth Technical Community College will be the primary trainer. Students will be recruited from among unemployed or underemployed residents of the Liberty Street Corridor, Southeast Gateway community, and other areas of the city affected by brownfields. The Northwest Piedmont Council of Governments Workforce Development Board will assist with the placement of graduates in environmental technician jobs.

For more information on the grant recipients, go to: https://www.epa.gov/swerosps/bf/archive/pilot_arch.htm

More information on brownfields in general is at https://www.epa.gov/brownfields

CONTACT: Dawn Harris-Young, EPA Media Relations, 404-562-8421