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City of El Paso to Receive $1 Million Brownfield Grant from EPA to Revitalize Contaminated Properties

Release Date: 5/9/2002
Contact Information: For more information contact the Office of External Affairs at (214) 665-2200.

     Today, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) presented a $1 million Brownfields grant to El Paso Mayor Raymond C. Caballero to help clean up and revitalize the city.  

     The grant is awarded under EPA's Brownfields Revolving Loan Fund (BCRLF) program to capitalize state and local programs that in turn provide no-interest or low-interest loans to businesses to carry out cleanup activities at Brownfields properties.  EPA Superfund Division Director Myron Knudson presented the award on behalf of EPA. Federal capitalization of these loan programs provides necessary resources that enable state and local governments to produce or leverage billions of dollars in other public and private sector funding to revitalize economically depressed communities.

     El Paso was one of three entities in Region 6 selected to receive a $1 million BCRLF grant.  The other two entities are the Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality and the New Mexico Environment Department.

     El Paso will focus its Brownfields efforts on the El Paso Empowerment Zone, which includes downtown El Paso and the central core of the city, referred to as El Corazón de El Paso (the Heart of El Paso).  Downtown El Paso lies within a federal Empowerment Zone and a state Enterprise Zone.  There are also two Tax Increment Financing (TIF) zones in the target area.

     El Paso was previously awarded a Brownfields Assessment Demonstration Pilot last year and has made several accomplishments.  These include conducting Phase I and Phase II environmental site assessments at the Union Pacific Freight Depot, 420 S. Campbell, and inventorying potential Brownfield sites in the downtown and South Central El Paso areas.  The city has demonstrated its commitment to involving community groups and individuals in its Brownfields activities, as well as coordinating the existing stakeholder organizations to maximize their effectiveness in redeveloping target areas.

     Because of its unique status as a desert city, border town, with no place to annex in order to increase tax revenue, the city is motivated to redevelop Brownfields and will find innovative ways to make it happen.  

     El Paso already has its own revolving loan fund in place with local banks taking turns being "Fund Manager" and providing in-kind services to help small businesses.  The city will be using this arrangement to help make their BCRLF more successful.

     To date, EPA has awarded 143 Brownfields Revolving Loan Fund grants to 39 states and the District of Columbia totaling almost $91 million.  For every dollar of federal money spent on Brownfields cleanup activities, cities and states produce or leverage $2.48 in private investment.  To date, EPA's Brownfields program has leveraged over $4 billion in public and private investments that have turned abandoned industrial properties into thriving economic centers, useful recreational areas and beneficial open spaces.  

     In addition to the Revolving Loan Fund program, EPA's Brownfields program also funds state and local governments through assessment demonstration pilots and job training pilots.  All of these pilot programs are intended to provide states, tribes, municipalities and communities with useful information and strategies to promote a unified approach to site assessment, environmental cleanup and redevelopment of contaminated properties.  These grants spur partnerships among state and local governments, community groups, investors and developers to get sites cleaned up and ready for community use instead of remaining a liability to the community and a continuing threat to public health and the environment.  

     Earlier this year, President Bush signed legislation that will encourage the cleanup and redevelopment of old industrial properties -- cleaning up our environment, creating jobs and protecting small businesses from frivolous lawsuits.  In addition, the President's FY 03 budget request doubled the funds available through the EPA in FY 02 -- from $98 million to $200 million -- to help states and communities around the country clean up and revitalize Brownfields sites.

     For more information about EPA's Brownfields program, go to:
https://www.epa.gov/brownfields.