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City of Perry, Iowa, to Receive $400,000 for Assessment and Cleanup of Hazardous Substances at Former Rail Yard

Release Date: 05/31/2012
Contact Information: Belinda Young, (913) 551-7463, [email protected]

Environmental News

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

(Kansas City, Kan., May 31, 2012) - The City of Perry, Iowa, has been selected to receive $400,000 in EPA brownfields funding to assess and clean up hazardous substances at the former Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Paul Rail Yard in the city’s Spring Valley Township.

The funding is being awarded through an EPA Brownfields Multi-purpose Pilot Grant, which provides funding for site assessment and cleanup in a single grant. Perry was selected from nine communities across the country in need of redevelopment.

“The Brownfields Program helps Region 7 communities clean up local properties for future use," said Region 7 Administrator Karl Brooks.

There are an estimated 450,000 abandoned and contaminated waste sites in America. EPA’s Brownfields Program targets these sites to encourage redevelopment, and help to provide the opportunity for productive community use.

The 101-acre former Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Paul Rail Yard is an abandoned property, contaminated with PCBs, herbicides, heavy metals, and inorganic contaminants. Assessment grant funds will be used to conduct in-depth sampling activities to identify the types and concentrations of contaminants. These funds will also be used to develop cleanup plans, and engage the community and other stakeholders with the project.

Cleanup funds will be used to manage the overall planning and coordination of the project, clean up the site, and prepare a project completion report, which will summarize the cleanup activities performed at the site. The property is expected to be redeveloped as a park and trailhead. It may also be used as a site for the generation of renewable energy.

EPA’s Brownfields Program empowers states, communities, and other stakeholders to work together to prevent, assess, safely clean up, and sustainable reuse brownfields. A brownfields site is real property, the expansion, redevelopment, or reuse of which may be complicated by the presence or potential presence of a hazardous substance, pollutant, or contaminant.

In 2002, the Small Business Liability Relief and Brownfields Revitalization Act was passed to help states and communities around the country clean up and revitalize brownfields sites. Under this law, EPA provides financial assistance to eligible applicants to assess and clean up brownfields sites.