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Brownfields 2008 Grant Fact Sheet
Houston, TX
EPA BROWNFIELDS PROGRAM
EPA's Brownfields Program empowers states, communities, and other stakeholders 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 this 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 GRANTS
$200,000 for hazardous substances
$200,000 for petroleum
EPA has selected the City of Houston for two brownfields assessment grants. Hazardous substances grant funds will be used to inventory sites, conduct Phase I and II environmental site assessments, and support community outreach activities. Petroleum grant funds will be used to perform the same tasks at sites with potential petroleum contamination.
COMMUNITY DESCRIPTION
The City of Houston was selected to receive two brownfields assessment grants. Located near the Gulf of Mexico, Houston (population 2,231,335) is the county seat and largest city in Harris County. The financial decline associated with the oil bust in the mid-1980s closed hundreds of local businesses. The city contains thousands of manufacturing facilities, industrial plants, and businesses that directly and indirectly support the chemical industry. Poor materials handling and disposal practices at these facilities have led to hundreds of brownfields. A portion of the city is a federally designated Enterprise Community, where 42 percent of residents live below the poverty level. In the city as a whole, more than 21 percent of residents live below the poverty level, and 71.5 percent of residents are minorities. Assessment of the city's brownfields is expected to jump-start cleanup and redevelopment, and enable the leveraging of additional resources for redevelopment in Houston.
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.
EPA Region 6 Brownfields Team
214-665-6780
EPA Region 6 Brownfields web site
Grant Recipient: City of Houston, TX
713-837-7978
The information presented in this fact sheet comes from the grant proposal; EPA cannot attest to the accuracy of this information. The cooperative agreement for the grant has not yet been negotiated. Therefore, activities described in this fact sheet are subject to change.