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City of Yankton receives $170,000 EPA cleanup grant

Release Date: 5/10/2005
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Denver -- Revitalization efforts in Yankton, S.D., were given a big boost today as EPA awarded a $170,000 Brownfields cleanup grant for the Jensen Scrap Yard at 204 Mulberry St.

The City of Yankton is among communities in 44 states that will share more than $75 million in EPA Brownfields grants to help revitalize former industrial and commercial sites, transforming them from eyesores into community assets.

The $170,000 EPA cleanup grant will be used by the City of Yankton to cleanup the Jensen Scrap Yard, the most contaminated brownfield site in the city. Grant funds will be used to clean up soils contaminated with chromium, lead and PCBs and will also fund community involvement activities. The site was used at various points as a scrap yard,
railroad line and industrial storage facility for bulk oil. Cleanup of this site will remove a public health threat, eliminate the main impediment to development in the downtown area and preserve open space on the fringes of the city.

"The grants announced today give local partnerships the ability to address environmental issues at sites that are being transformed into vital assets," said EPA Assistant Regional Administrator Max Dodson. "In addition to improving the environment, they are investments in the future that help communities achieve important economic redevelopment and social goals."

Brownfields are sites where potentially harmful contaminants may be impeding revitalization. EPA's 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 over $190 million, 189 revolving loan fund grants for cleanup worth more than $165 million, and $26.8 million for 150 direct cleanup grants.

In addition to grants being announced today, participants in the Brownfields program gain access to the expertise and resources from more than 20 federal agencies. Nationwide, there are four categories of grants being awarded with 218 applicants, including three tribal nations, selected to receive 302 grants totaling $75.9 million. These include:
• 172 assessment grants, worth $33.6 million, to assess and plan for eventual cleanup at one or more brownfield sites;
• 106 cleanup grants, totaling $19.3 million, for recipients to clean up brownfield sites they own;
• 13 revolving loan fund grants, totaling $20.8 million, for communities to use to make low-interest loans for the cleanup of brownfield sites, and
• 11 job-training grants, valued at $2.2 million, for environmental training of people who live in brownfield communities.

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.

For detailed fact sheets on the individual grant recipients, visit: https://www.epa.gov/swerosps/bf/archive/pilot_arch.htm
For more information on the Brownfields program: https://www.epa.gov/brownfields/
EPA is cosponsoring a National Brownfields Conference in Denver in November of 2005. For more information: http://www.brownfields2005.org/en/index.aspx