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EPA Announces $1 Million for Brownfields Projects in West Virginia

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

PHILADELPHIA – (May 8, 2009) -- Four communities in West Virginia will share an estimated $1 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 $400,000 from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Recovery Act) and $600,000 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: the city of Moundsville ($200,000) in the state's northern panhandle to clean up the Fostoria Glass Plant site where building and soil are contaminated; and the Preston County Economic Development Authority ($200,000) to help assess properties impacted by acid mine drainage from area mines and erosion from timber operations.

Applicants selected to receive brownfields general program funds are: the Brooke-Hancock Regional Planning and Development Council ($400,000) to assess brownfields properties in the former nationally recognized steel manufacturing area in the state's northern pandle; and the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection ($200,000) to assess brownfields properties in Ritchie County in the north-central part of the state.

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/.