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EPA Awards $400,000 Brownfields Assessment Grants to Richmond

Release Date: 11/14/2013
Contact Information: Bonnie Smith, 215-814-5543 / [email protected]

RICHMOND, Va. (November 14, 2013) – U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Regional Administrator Shawn M. Garvin today announced two EPA community-wide brownfields assessment grants totaling $400,000 to the City of Richmond. These grants will enable the city to expand its environmental assessment of properties, making way for future redevelopment opportunities.

“EPA is pleased to be here at Main Street Station, an historic landmark- - now once again a busy transportation hub,” said Shawn M. Garvin, EPA Regional Administrator. “Richmond’s leadership in transforming urban lands is an example for all cities that we can safely reuse formerly contaminated properties, promote economic development, and improve the quality of life for our children and future generations.”

Regional Administrator Garvin met with community members and community leaders including the City of Richmond Senior Policy Advisor David Hicks, Virginia’s Secretary of Natural Resources Doug Domenech and Virginia’s Department of Environmental Quality Deputy Director James Golden to recognize Richmond’s brownfields redevelopment program.

“The repurposing of historic buildings in the Shockoe Bottom, Manchester, and downtown areas has been greatly enhanced with the assistance of state and federal resources to repair sites and buildings,” said Secretary of Natural Resources Doug Domenech.

The EPA grants will help Richmond move another step forward in the redevelopment of the Main Street Station, a downtown transportation center that provides an annual economic benefit to the city of $26 million in spending and supports 180 jobs.

Richmond was selected to receive the EPA grants announced today through a national competition among local governments and non-profit organizations.

Richmond will use the funds to expand its inventory of potential brownfields properties in the Main Street Station areas by conducting site specific assessments to determine public health and environmental impacts. One $200,000 grant is to assess properties that may be contaminated with hazardous substances. The other grant, also for $200,000, is to assess properties that may be contaminated with petroleum products.

Since the inception of EPA’s brownfields program in 1995, the City of Richmond has received six grants totaling $1.4 million and has conducted more than 60 assessments and/or cleanups of brownfields properties.

For more information on brownfields assessment grants see: https://www.epa.gov/brownfields/assessment_grants.htm.

More information on brownfields grants by state: https://cfpub.epa.gov/bf_factsheets/.

More information on EPA’s brownfields program: https://www.epa.gov/brownfields/.

Benefits: https://www.epa.gov/brownfields/overview/Brownfields-Benefits-postcard.pdf.