Brownfields 2005 Grant Fact Sheet

Oregon Department of Environmental Quality

EPA BROWNFIELDS PROGRAM

EPA's Brownfields Program empowers states, communities, and other stakeholders in economic development to work together to prevent, assess, safely clean up, and sustainably reuse brownfields. A brownfield 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. On January 11, 2002, President George W. Bush signed into law the Small Business Liability Relief and Brownfields Revitalization Act. Under the Brownfields Law, EPA provides financial assistance to eligible applicants through four competitive grant programs: assessment grants, revolving loan fund grants, cleanup grants, and job training grants. Additionally, funding support is provided to state and tribal response programs through a separate mechanism.

ASSESSMENT GRANT

$200,000 for petroleum
EPA has selected the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) for a brownfields assessment grant. Grant funds will be used to perform six environmental site assessments, primarily in rural or economically distressed areas of the state. Grant funds also will be used to remove underground storage tanks, install groundwater monitoring wells, and conduct community outreach activities.

COMMUNITY DESCRIPTION

The Oregon Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) was selected to receive a brownfields assessment grant. The target areas are the rural or economically distressed areas of the state, where approximately 34 percent of the state's 3,541,500 residents live. These target communities have high unemployment rates, and are challenged in their ability to promote and achieve redevelopment and other revitalization projects. The stability of the communities is also challenged by the migration of high school graduates to other cities and states for jobs. Every community in these areas has brownfields that adversely affect them. These abandoned or underused properties are in strategic locations or occupy the only land in the community zoned for industrial use. Brownfields redevelopment will help remove the stigma of contamination from these key properties, and thus, help the affected communities attract development and bring new jobs to the state's rural and distressed areas.

CONTACTS

For further information, including specific grant contacts, additional grant information, brownfields news and events, and publications and links, visit the EPA Brownfields web site at: www.epa.gov/brownfields.

EPA Region 10 Brownfields Team
206-553-2100
http://www.epa.gov/r10earth, click on "Superfund", scroll down and click on "Brownfields"

Grant Recipient: Oregon Department of Environmental Quality
541-278-4620

The cooperative agreement for this grant has not yet been negotiated; therefore, activities described in this fact sheet are subject to change.