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EPA Announces $4 Million for Brownfields Projects in Pennsylvania

Release Date: 05/08/2009
Contact Information: David Sternberg [email protected], 215-814-5548

PHILADELPHIA – (May 8, 2009) -- Ten communities in Pennsylvania will share an estimated $4 million to help assess, clean up and revitalize former industrial and commercial sites, turning them from problem properties into productive community use. The grants, to be awarded by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, include $2.1 million from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Recovery Act) and $1.9 million from the EPA brownfields general program funding.

"Brownfields initiatives demonstrate how environmental protection and economic development work hand-in-hand," said William C. Early, acting administrator for EPA's mid-Atlantic region. "Along with generating new jobs, these grants will help bring productive use to community eyesores that have been unused for years and turn them into assets that benefits the community, the environment, and the economy."

Applicants selected to receive Recovery Act funds are:

· Central Bradford Progress Authority ($200,000) in Bradford County;
· Borough of Central City ($200,000) in Somerset County;
· Johnstown Redevelopment Authority ($360,000) in Cambria County;
· Montgomery County Community College ($200,000) to help clean up the old PECO Building site;
· North Side Industrial Development Co. ($900,000) for brownfields assessment of communities in Allegheny, Armstrong and
Westmoreland counties;
· Borough of Steelton ($200,000) located south of Harrisburg along the Susquehanna River

Applicants selected to receive brownfields general program funds are:
· Bucks County Redevelopment Authority ($500,000);
· Earth Conservancy ($200,000) to support cleanup of a brownfields site in Nanticoke City, Luzerne County;
· Redevelopment Authority of the County of Washington ($1 million);
· Windber Borough ($200,000) in Somerset County

The grants will help to assess, clean and redevelop abandoned, contaminated properties known as brownfields. Brownfields are sites where expansion, redevelopment, or reuse may be complicated by the presence or potential presence of a hazardous substance, pollutant, or contaminant. In addition, the Small Business Liability Relief and Brownfields Revitalization Act of 2002 expanded the definition of a brownfield to include mine-scarred lands or sites contaminated by petroleum or the manufacture of illegal drugs. Grant recipients are selected through a national competition.

The Brownfields Program encourages cleanup and redevelopment of America’s estimated 450,000 brownfields sites. Since the beginning of the Brownfields Program, EPA has awarded 1449 assessment grants totaling over $337.3 million, 242 revolving loan fund grants totaling over $233.4 million, and 534 cleanup grants totaling $93.3 million.

For additional information on the EPA Region 3 brownfields program, visit https://www.epa.gov/reg3hwmd/bf-lr/ .

Information on the national EPA Brownfields Program, including brownfields activities under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, is also available at https://www.epa.gov/brownfields/.