Illinois Asset Protection News

EPA Awards Over $10.3 million in Grants to Pacific Southwest Groups

(5/12/06) SAN FRANCISCO-- Today the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency awarded over $10.3 million to Pacific Southwest groups for assessment, inventory, redevelopment and cleanup of properties that have sat idle due to perceived or real contamination. The funds will help pay for projects in Californa, Arizona, Nevada, Hawaii, and the Pacific Islands, where grant recipients are working to redevelop “brownfield” properties. Today’s awards were part of $69.9 million in brownfields grants given out to communities throughout the country.

“Today’s grants will help speed the cleanup and redevelopment of properties, providing jobs and helping revitalize neighborhoods,” said Wayne Nastri, administrator of the U.S. EPA’s Pacific Southwest Region. “The brownfields program enables communities to develop idle land into productive community assets.”

The brownfields program encourages turning America's estimated 450,000 problem properties to productive community use. Since the beginning of the brownfields program, the EPA has awarded 883 assessment grants totaling $225.4 million, 202 revolving loan fund grants totaling $186.7 million, and 238 cleanup grants totaling $42.7 million. In addition to industrial and commercial redevelopment, brownfields approaches have included the conversion of industrial waterfronts to river-front parks, landfills to golf courses, rail corridors to recreational trails, and gas stations to housing. EPA's brownfields assistance has leveraged more than $8.2 billion in private investment, helped create 37,525 jobs and resulted in the assessment of 8,374 properties and the cleanup of 93 properties.

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