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U.S. EPA Awards Funds for Local Brownfields in Arizona

Release Date: 6/20/2003
Contact Information: Lisa Fasano, (415) 947-4307

     SAN FRANCISCO   The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced today that two Arizona communities and one native American tribe will receive grants totaling $840,600 from the agency to promote redevelopment of Brownfields sites   places where environmental contamination or the perception of it has complicated or thwarted redevelopment opportunities.
     These grants are among the first to be awarded under the Brownfields Revitalization and Environmental Restoration Act signed into law in January 2002.  The act authorizes up to $250 million per year for Brownfields grants, including up to $50 million for the assessment and cleanup of low-risk petroleum contaminated sites.
    Those receiving grants will be the city of Tucson, the town of Cave Creek and the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community in Maricopa County.
    Tucson will receive $75,000 for assessment of petroleum pollution and a former petroleum storage and distribution center and $200,000 to clean up petroleum contamination at 35 East Toole Ave.; Cave Creek will receive $165,600 for assessment of contamination of mine-scarred lands; and the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community will receive $200,000 for assessment of contamination at a 200-acre former landfill and $200,000 for cleanup activities at the landfill.
    "These grants will help turn neighborhood eyesores into community assets, restoring hope and creating opportunity for the people who live nearby," said EPA Administrator Christie Whitman said. "From the signing by President Bush of landmark Brownfields legislation last year, to the more than doubling of funds made available for Brownfields reclamation, this Administration has proven its commitment to the environmental cleanup and economic revitalization of our nation's communities."
    "The Brownfields Act recognizes that cleanup money is needed to help restore abandoned properties back into productive use by providing local jobs, needed tax revenues and recreational benefits that have been lost,"  said Wayne Nastri, the EPA's regional administrator for the Pacific Southwest region. "These grants represent a committed partnership between federal government and community interests to work together to make these sites whole again."
    The money going to Arizona is part of  $73.1 million being awarded nationally that will fund 117 Brownfield assessment grants totaling $30.7 million, 69 cleanup grants totaling $12 million and 28 revolving loan fund grants totaling $30.4 million.
    In the Pacific Southwest Region of the EPA, $7.9 million is being awarded in California, Nevada and Arizona. Since the Brownfields program began in 1995, $32.9 million in grants has been awarded regionally.
More information about EPA's Brownfields program is available at: https://www.epa.gov/swerosps/bf/index.html
Also visit:
https://www.epa.gov/region09/waste/brown/
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