All News Releases By Date

U.S. EPA Announces $3 million for Wisconsin brownfields

Release Date: 5/11/2005
Contact Information:

CONTACT: (EPA) Mick Hans, (312) 353-5050

For Immediate Release
No. 05-OPA063

CHICAGO (May 11, 2005) — U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has awarded $3 million to three communities and government consortiums to help address brownfield sites in Wisconsin. Brownfields are abandoned or under-utilized properties where the stigma of possible pollution or a lack of solid technical information has discouraged redevelopment.

"EPA's Brownfields program puts both property and people back to work," said Region 5 Acting Administrator Bharat Mathur. "The grants we're awarding today to Wisconsin communities can convert eyesores into engines of economic rebirth."

Nationally, EPA announced $75.9 million in grants. A total of 218 applicants, including three tribal nations, were selected to receive 291 grants. One category of grants provides funds to evaluate contaminated properties. Another category provides funds to do cleanup work. Eleven other applicants around the country will receive job training grants.

Grant recipients in Wisconsin:

• Redevelopment Authority of the City of Milwaukee: $2.2 million (seven grants) for hazardous substances and petroleum assessment in five aldermanic districts where 85 percent of the city's 206 tax-delinquent brownfields are located; for cleanup of metals and hazardous substances at industrial and former dump sites located at Garden Park, 821-33 E. Locust St., the Robert G. Betz Trust property and 502-04 W. Cherry St.; and for capitalizing a revolving loan fund that will provide grants and loans for cleanup activities mainly on Milwaukee's 30th Street Industrial Corridor and the Menomonee Valley/Inner Harbor area.
• West Allis Community Development Authority: $400,000 (two grants) for developing a remedial action plan, conducting site remediation activities and community involvement at the 8-acre Pressed Steel Tank and Novak Lime Pit areas. The Novak Lime pit is a 12-acre site where carbide gas was made and is surrounded on three sides by a residential area.
• Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources: $400,000 (two grants) for site assessments and developing remedial action plans for sites in Milwaukee's 30th Street Industrial Corridor where tanneries, breweries, foundries and motor manufacturers were once located.