Proposal Guidelines for Brownfields Assessment, Revolving Loan Fund, and Cleanup Grants -
Initial Proposal Guidelines

4. Initial Proposal Guidelines 15
4.1. Preliminary Information 16
4.2. Assessment Grants 18
4.3. Revolving Loan Fund Grants 20
4.4. Cleanup Grants 24

4. Initial Proposal Guidelines

To request funding, applicants must submit a single Initial Proposal. The Initial Proposal will be used to address up to three types of brownfields grant activities (assessment, RLF, and cleanup). Generally, Initial Proposals should be between 7 and 10 pages in length, not including attachments. The

Initial Proposal will consist of the following items:

• Cover Letter (optional)
  
• Applicant Information
  
• Requested Programs and Funding
  
• Project Overview
  
• Responses to Assessment Grant Criteria (if applicable)
  1. Threshold Criteria
  2. Ranking Criteria
  
• Responses to RLF Grant Criteria (if applicable)
  1. Threshold Criteria
  2. Ranking Criteria
  
• Responses to Cleanup Grant Criteria (if applicable)
  1. Threshold Criteria
  2. Ranking Criteria
  
• Attachments

4.1. Preliminary Information

Please provide the following:

I. Cover Letter (Optional)

Submission of a cover letter is optional. If a cover letter is submitted, please prepare it on the applicant's letterhead and have it signed by an official of your organization.

II. Applicant Information

A. Project Title: Be as specific as possible.

B. Name of Applicant: The proposed recipient of the grant funds.

Note: For RLF coalition proposals, the entity named here will be considered the cooperative agreement recipient.

C. Project Contact: Name, mailing address, telephone and fax numbers, and email address of the person from your organization who is responsible for the project proposal. We will contact this person if we need further information.

D. Chief Executive: Name of the elected or other official who is head of your organization, mailing address, email address, and phone and fax numbers.

Note: For RLF coalition proposals, provide the information for the chief executive for each eligible entity.

E. Location: City, county, and state or Indian Reservation, triballyowned lands, tribal fee lands, etc., of the area targeted by your proposal.

Note: For RLF coalition proposals, list the relevant information for each eligible entity.

F. Population: The population of your jurisdiction and of the area targeted by your proposal. Tribes should provide the number of tribal/nontribal members affected.

Note: For RLF coalition proposals, list the relevant information for each eligible entity.

G. Special Consideration: Indicate whether you qualify for special consideration during proposal evaluation (i.e., population of your community under 100,000; federally recognized tribe; federally designated Empowerment Zone/Enterprise Community in your community; or federally designated Renewal Community).

III. Requested Programs and Funding

(print/copy and complete and submit with proposal)

Name of Applicant:____________________________________________

Please respond as appropriate:

IV. Project Overview

Describe your proposed project and your plans for using EPA grant funds, including assessment, cleanup, and revolving loan fund grants, as appropriate.

Note:
Only those proposals identifying specific sites will be eligible to apply for a waiver.

4.2. Assessment Grants

Provide responses to the following threshold and ranking criteria if you are applying for assessment grant funding. Threshold criteria are pass/fail criteria. If your responses do not meet the threshold criteria, you will not be invited to prepare Final Proposals.

Threshold Criteria

A. Applicant Eligibility

Note: For this threshold criterion, EPA may seek further clarification of responses, if needed, during the selection review process.

Describe how you are an eligible entity for the grants for which you are applying. Refer to the description of applicant eligibility in Section 2.1.

B. Community Notification

Note: EPA will not seek further clarification of responses to this criterion.

Describe how the community was notified of the preparation and submission of this proposal.

Note: Those applicants selected to submit a Final Proposal will need to describe how the community was given the opportunity to be involved in the preparation of the Final Proposal.

C. Letter from the State or Tribal Environmental Authority

Note: EPA will not seek further clarification of responses to this criterion from the applicant.

For an applicant other than a state or tribal environmental authority, provide a letter from the appropriate state or tribal environmental authority acknowledging that you plan to conduct assessment activities. If you are applying for multiple types of grant program activities, you need submit only one letter acknowledging the relevant grant activities. Provide as an attachment.

D. Description of Sites
Note: For this threshold criterion, EPA may seek further clarification of responses, if needed, during the selection review process.

If you have identified specific sites, address the following for each site:

1. List the site name and address and describe its operational history, environmental concerns, and its current site use and activity.

2. If you determine the site is not eligible for funding without a property-specific determination, then you will need to apply for a property-specific determination. To apply for a property- specific determination, attach the information requested in Appendix 4 Section 4.1. Contact your Regional representative for further guidance.

Note: EPA may use available information to verify that the site is eligible for funding.

3. Identify who owns the site.

4. Identify how the site became contaminated.

5. If the site is contaminated with petroleum, describe whether Leaking Underground Storage Tank (LUST) trust fund money has been spent at this site or whether the site is subject to a response under the Oil Pollution Act (see Appendix 3).

6. If the applicant owns the site, describe how you took ownership of the site (e.g., tax foreclosure) and date of acquisition.

7. If the site is not owned by the applicant, describe your relationship with the owner and their role in the work to be performed.

8. If the applicant owns the site, describe whether you are responsible for any of the environmental concerns at the site.

9. For those sites that are not owned by the applicant, indicate how access will be secured.

10. Indicate whether you are applying for a waiver of the $200,000 per site funding limit. If so, indicate the dollar amount requested and provide a justification as to why the waiver should be granted. Justification must be based on the anticipated level of contamination, size, or status of ownership (refer to Section 2.2. for a discussion of this waiver).

11. Identify ongoing or anticipated environmental enforcement actions related to the brownfield site for which funding is sought.

Ranking Criteria

A. Community Need (a maximum of 40 points may be received for this criterion)

1. Provide a detailed description of the target community that the project(s) will benefit. Include demographic information and indicators such as the poverty rate, unemployment rate, special community situations (e.g., population size), or other environmental justice factors that support community need relating directly to this project (e.g., low-income and/or minority communities; sensitive populations, such as children and pregnant women; or communities disproportionately impacted by environmental factors).

2. Characterize the impact of brownfields on your community (or communities) by describing the extent of brownfields (e.g., size, number, location) and the economic, health, and/or environmental impacts of the brownfields.

B. Leveraging of Additional Resources (a maximum of 40 points may be received for this criterion)

1. Describe the financial needs for each phase of the project (assessment, cleanup, and redevelopment), if known.

2. Identify the funds (e.g., general revenues, Tax Increment Financing (TIF), staff time/in-kind) that your agency/organization has committed or will commit to meet the needs described above.

3. Describe all other funding sources (e.g., federal, state, nonprofit, or private) that will be committed to fill in any remaining funding gaps to ensure the success of this project.

4. Describe the extent to which this grant will meet the financial needs described above and stimulate the availability of the other funding sources.

C. Ability to Manage Grants (a maximum of 20 points may be received for this criterion)

1. Describe your ability to manage this grant and oversee the assessment work, or describe the system(s) you have in place to hire the requisite expertise.

2. Describe your history of managing federal funds generally. You must identify and provide information regarding the status of any adverse audit findings from an OMB Circular A-133

3. If you are, or have been, a recipient of an EPA Brownfields Assessment cooperative agreement, provide information regarding your compliance with quarterly progress reports, brownfields reporting measures, and annual financial status reporting.

4. If you are a current recipient of an EPA Brownfields Assessment cooperative agreement, indicate the amount of funds remaining.

5. If you are a current recipient of an EPA Brownfields Assessment cooperative agreement, highlight significant accomplishments generated through the use of the funds.

D. Site Selection Process (a maximum of 30 points may be received for this criterion)

1. Describe how sites were selected/will be selected and what site selection criteria were/will be developed.

2. Describe possible or previous inventory activities, prioritization efforts, or other activities.

3. If you anticipate conducting assessment activities on privately owned sites, discuss possible access issues and how you would resolve the issues.

4.3. Revolving Loan Fund Grants

Provide responses to the following threshold and ranking criteria if you are applying for Revolving Loan Fund grant funding. Threshold criteria are pass/fail criteria. If your responses do not meet the threshold criteria, you will not be invited to prepare Final Proposals.

Threshold Criteria

A. Applicant Eligibility

Note: For this threshold criterion, EPA may seek further clarification of responses, if needed, during the selection review process.

Describe how you are an eligible entity for the grants for which you are applying. Refer to the description of applicant eligibility in Section 2.1.

Note: Coalition applicants for RLF grants must demonstrate that all coalition members are eligible entities. In addition, for coalition members other than the applicant, you must submit a letter from each eligible coalition member in which they agree to be part of the coalition.

B. Community Notification

Note: EPA will not seek further clarification of responses to this criterion.

Describe how the community was notified of the preparation and submission of this proposal.

Note: Those applicants selected to submit a Final Proposal will need to describe how the community was given the opportunity to be involved in the preparation of the Final Proposal.

C. Legal Authority to Manage a Revolving Loan Fund

Note: EPA will not seek further clarification of responses to this criterion.

Provide an opinion from your legal counsel that demonstrates your legal authority to perform the actions necessary to manage a revolving loan fund. At a minimum, legal authority must include the ability to hold funds, make loans, enter into loan agreements, and collect repayments. This authority may be based on statute, regulation, or other authority. Attach your counsel's legal opinion.

D. Cleanup Authority and Oversight Structure

Note: EPA will not seek further clarification of responses to this criterion.

1. Describe how you will oversee the cleanup at the site. Indicate whether you plan to require loan or subgrant recipients to enroll in a state or tribal voluntary response program. If you do not plan to require loan or subgrant recipients to enroll in a state or tribal voluntary response program, provide a description of the technical expertise you have to manage the cleanup and/or whether you plan to acquire additional technical expertise. If you do plan to acquire additional technical expertise, discuss how, consistent with 40 CFR 31.36, you will ensure that this technical expertise is in place prior to beginning cleanup activities.

2. Provide a legal opinion from your counsel that demonstrates that you have legal authority to access and secure sites in the event of an emergency or default of a loan agreement or non- performance under a subgrant. Attach your counsel's legal opinion.

E. Cost Share

Note: EPA will not seek further clarification of responses to this criterion.

RLF grant recipients are required by the new Brownfields Law to provide a 20 percent cost share.² This cost share is calculated as 20 percent of the total federal RLF funds awarded. For example, if you are applying for $1 million of federal RLF funds, you must provide a cost share of an additional $200,000. The cost share may be in the form of a contribution of money, labor, material, or services from a non-federal source. If the cost share is in the form of contribution of labor, material, or other services, it must be incurred for an eligible and allowable cost under the grant and not for ineligible costs, such as administrative costs (see Appendix 2 for a discussion of prohibited costs).

1. Describe your plans for providing the cost share as required for this RLF program grant.

RLF grant applicants may petition EPA to waive the cost-share requirement if it would place an undue hardship on the eligible entity. EPA will consider hardship waiver requests on a case-by-case basis and will approve such requests on a limited basis. Undue hardship may be defined as bankruptcy or such other indicator of distress, including low per-capita income, unemployment rate above national average, or unemployment or economic adjustment problems resulting from severe short-term or long-term changes in economic conditions. Applicants should contact their regional representative (see Appendix 1) to discuss applying for a hardship waiver prior to submitting their Initial Proposal.

2. If you are requesting a hardship waiver of the cost share, provide an explanation for the basis of your request as part of your proposal.

F. Letter from the State or Tribal Environmental Authority

Note: EPA will not seek further clarification of responses to this criterion from the applicant.

For an applicant other than a state or tribal environmental authority, provide a letter from the appropriate state or tribal environmental authority acknowledging that the applicant plans to conduct or oversee cleanup activities. If you are applying for multiple types of grant program activities, you need only submit one letter acknowledging the relevant grant activities. Provide as an attachment.

G. Description of Sites

If you are identifying particular sites, address the following for each site:

1. Identify the proposed borrower or subgrantee. Include the organizational name and address.

2. List the site name and address and describe its operational history, environmental concerns, and its current site use and activity.

3. If you determine the site is not eligible for funding without a property-specific determination, then you will need to apply for a property-specific determination. To apply for a property- specific determination, attach the information requested in Appendix 4, Section 4.1. Contact your Regional representative for further guidance.

Note: EPA may use available information to verify that the site is eligible for funding.

4. Identify who owns the site.

Note: For subgrants, the subgrantee must own the site at the time the subgrant is awarded.

5. Identify how the site became contaminated.

6. If the site is contaminated with petroleum, describe whether LUST trust fund money has been spent at this site or whether the site is subject to a response under the Oil Pollution Act (see Appendix 3).

7. If the borrower or subgrantee owns the site, describe how they took ownership of the site (e.g., tax foreclosure) and the date of acquisition.

8. If the applicant owns the site, describe whether you are responsible for any of the environmental concerns at the site.

Note: An applicant may loan RLF grant funds to itself but may not issue subgrants of RLF grant funds to itself.

9. Identify ongoing or anticipated environmental enforcement actions related to the brownfield site for which funding is sought.

² Applicants for an RLF grant may use fees from borrowers, interest on loans, repayments of loan principal, and other "program income" to meet the cost share requirement. However, if an RLF grant applicant plans to use anticipated program income for cost share, the applicant also must demonstrate how alternative sources for obtaining money, labor, material, or services can be used to meet its cost share requirement if program income is less than anticipated during the performance period for the grant.

Ranking Criteria

A. Community Need (a maximum of 40 points may be received for this criterion)

1. Provide a detailed description of the target community that the project(s) will benefit. Include demographic information and indicators, such as the poverty rate, unemployment rate, special community situations (e.g., population size), or other environmental justice factors that support community need relating directly to this project (e.g., low-income and/or minority communities; sensitive populations, such as children and pregnant women; or communities disproportionately impacted by environmental factors).

2. Characterize the impact of brownfields on your community (or communities) by describing the extent of brownfields (e.g., size, number, location) and the economic, health, and/or environmental impacts of the brownfields.

B. Leveraging of Additional Resources (a maximum of 40 points may be received for this criterion)

1. Describe the financial needs for each phase of the project (cleanup and redevelopment), if known.

2. Identify the funds (e.g., general revenues, TIF, staff time/in-kind) that your agency/ organization has committed or will commit to meet the needs described above.

3. Describe all other funding sources (federal, state, nonprofit, or private) that will be committed to fill in any remaining funding gaps to ensure the success of this project.

4. Describe the extent to which this grant will meet the financial needs described above and stimulate the availability of the other funding sources.

C. Ability to Manage Grants/Management Structure (a maximum of 20 points may be received for this criterion)

1. Describe your history of managing federal funds generally. You must identify and provide information regarding the status of any adverse audit findings from an OMB Circular A-133 audit, an audit conducted by a federal, state, tribal, or local government inspector general or similar organization, or audits conducted by the U.S. General Accounting Office. You also must note whether you are, or have previously been, required to comply with special "high risk" terms and conditions under agency regulations implementing OMB Circular A-102.

2. Provide your plan for managing the loan fund to ensure that it is managed in accordance with prudent lending practices. Include information on the qualifications of staff and institutions the applicant intends to use for financial, analytical, legal, and record keeping activities to ensure that the loan fund is managed in accordance with prudent lending practices.

3. If you plan to acquire any fund management expertise, describe the relationship between the potential cooperative agreement recipient and the institution or individual and the type of agreement (e.g., contract³ or subgrant⁴) that is planned.

D. Description of Target Market for RLF Loans and Subgrants (a maximum of 40 points may be received for this criterion)

1. If you have not identified particular borrowers or subgrantees, describe your target market, including the types of borrowers and subgrantees (for example, small businesses, developers, local governments) and types of sites (for example, single property, multiple properties, geographic area).
2. If you plan to award subgrants under the RLF, describe how you will take the following into consideration ⁵:
1. The extent to which the subgrant will facilitate the creation of, preservation of, or addition to a park, greenway, undeveloped property, recreational property, or other property used for nonprofit purposes;
2. The extent to which the subgrant will meet the needs of a community that has an inability to draw on other sources of funding for environmental remediation and subsequent redevelopment of the area in which a brownfield site is located because of the small population or low income of the community;
3. The extent to which a subgrant will facilitate the use or reuse of existing infrastructure; and
4. The benefit of promoting the long-term availability of funds from a revolving loan fund for brownfield remediation.

³ Note, cooperative agreement recipients must comply with 40 CFR 31.36 when entering into procurement contracts with RLF grant funds and 40 CFR 31.37 when issuing subgrants with RLF grant funds. Nonprofit organizations receiving RLF loans/subgrants and cleanup grants must comply with 40 CFR Part 30 when entering into procurement contracts with RLF grant funds.

⁴ Note, cooperative agreement recipients cannot award subgrants to for-profit organizations.

⁵ Note, RLF cooperative agreement recipients must take these into consideration when awarding a subgrant.

4.4. Cleanup Grants

Provide responses to the following threshold and ranking criteria if you are applying for cleanup grant funding. Threshold criteria are pass/fail criteria. If your responses do not meet the threshold criteria, you will not be invited to prepare Final Proposals.

Note: One eligible entity may apply for up to 5 sites within its Initial Proposal, at up to $200,000 per site. Each site will be evaluated separately.

Threshold Criteria

A. Applicant Eligibility

Note: For this threshold criterion, EPA may seek further clarification of responses, if needed, during the selection review process.

Describe how you are an eligible entity for the grants for which you are applying. Refer to the description of applicant eligibility in Section 2.1.

Note: In order to receive a cleanup grant, the applicant must own the property at the time of award.

B. Community Notification

Note: EPA will not seek further clarification of responses to this criterion.

Describe how the community was notified of the preparation and submission of this proposal.

Note: Those applicants selected to submit a Final Proposal will need to describe how the community was given the opportunity to be involved in the preparation of the Final Proposal.

C. Description of Sites

Note: For this threshold criterion, EPA may seek further clarification of responses, if needed, during the selection review process.

For each site, provide the following:

1. List the site name and address and describe its operational history, environmental concerns, and its current site use and activity.

2. If you determine the site is not eligible for funding without a property-specific determination, then you will need to apply for a property-specific determination. To apply for a property- specific determination, attach the information requested in Appendix 4, Section 4.1. Contact your Regional representative for further guidance.

Note: EPA may use available information to verify that the site is eligible for funding.

3. Identify how the site became contaminated.

4. If the site is contaminated with petroleum, describe whether LUST trust fund money has been spent at this site or whether the site is subject to a response under the Oil Pollution Act (see Appendix 3).

5. Describe how you took ownership of the site (e.g., tax foreclosure) and date of acquisition.

Note: applicants will be required to supply documentation reflecting ownership of the property before the final award is made.

6. Describe whether you are responsible for any of the environmental concerns at the site.

7. Summarize the site assessment results.

8. Describe your approach for working with your state voluntary cleanup program or other relevant response program, if appropriate.

9. Identify ongoing or anticipated environmental enforcement actions related to the brownfield site for which funding is sought.

D. Cleanup Authority and Oversight Structure

Note: EPA will not seek further clarification of responses to this criterion.

1. Describe how you will oversee the cleanup at the site. Indicate whether you plan to enroll in a state or tribal voluntary response program. If you do not plan to enroll in a state or tribal voluntary response program, provide a description of the technical expertise you have to manage the cleanup and/or whether you plan to acquire additional technical expertise. If you do plan to acquire additional technical expertise, discuss how, consistent with 40 CFR 31.36 (for eligible government entities) or 40 CFR Part 30 (for nonprofit organizations), you will ensure that this technical expertise is in place prior to beginning cleanup activities.

2. Cleanup response activities often impact adjacent or neighboring properties. For example, access to neighboring properties may be necessary to conduct the cleanup, perform confirmation sampling, or monitor offsite migration of contamination. If this type of access is needed, provide your plan to acquire access to the relevant property.

E. Cost Share

Note: EPA will not seek further clarification of responses to this criterion.

Cleanup grant recipients are required by the new Brownfields Law to provide a 20 percent cost share. This cost share is calculated as 20 percent of the total federal cleanup funds awarded. For example, if you are applying for $1 million of federal cleanup funds, you must provide a cost share of an additional $200,000. The cost share may be in the form of a contribution of money, labor, material, or services from a non-federal source. If the cost share is in the form of contribution of labor, material, or other services, it must be incurred for an eligible and allowable cost under the grant and not for ineligible costs, such as administrative costs (see Appendix 2 for a discussion of prohibited costs).

1. Describe your plans for providing the cost share as required for this cleanup program grant.

Cleanup grant applicants may petition EPA to waive the cost share requirement if it would place an undue hardship on the eligible entity. EPA will consider hardship waiver requests on a case-by-case basis and will approve such requests on a limited basis. Undue hardship may be defined as bankruptcy or such other indicator of distress, including low per-capita income, unemployment rate above national average, or unemployment or economic adjustment problems resulting from severe short-term or long-term changes in economic conditions. Applicants should contact their regional representative to discuss applying for a hardship waiver prior to submitting their Initial Proposal.

2. If you are requesting a hardship waiver of the cost share, provide an explanation for the basis of your request as part of your proposal.

F. Letter from the State or Tribal Environmental Authority

Note: EPA will not seek further clarification of responses to this criterion from the applicant.

For an applicant other than a state or tribal environmental authority, provide a letter from the appropriate state or tribal environmental authority acknowledging that the applicant plans to conduct cleanup activities. If you are applying for multiple grant programs, you need only submit one letter acknowledging the relevant grant activities. Provide as an attachment.

Ranking Criteria

A. Community Need (a maximum of 40 points may be received for this criterion)

1. Provide a detailed description of the target community that the project(s) will benefit. Include demographic information and indicators such as the poverty rate, unemployment rate, special community situations (e.g., population size), or other environmental justice factors that support community need relating directly to this project (e.g., low-income and/or minority communities; sensitive populations, such as children and pregnant women; or communities disproportionately impacted by environmental factors).

2. Characterize the impact of brownfields on your community (or communities) by describing the extent of brownfields (e.g., size, number, location) and the economic, health, and/or environmental impacts of the brownfields.

B. Leveraging of Additional Resources (a maximum of 40 points may be received for this criterion)

1. Describe the financial needs for each phase of the project (cleanup and redevelopment), if known.

2. Identify the funds (e.g., general revenues, TIF, staff time/in-kind) that your agency/ organization has committed or will commit to meet the needs described above.

3. Describe all other funding sources (federal, state, nonprofit, or private) that will be committed to fill in any remaining funding gaps to ensure the success of this project.

4. Describe the extent to which this grant will meet the financial needs described above and stimulate the availability of the other funding sources.

C. Ability to Manage Grants (a maximum of 20 points may be received for this criterion)

1. Describe your ability to manage this grant or describe the system(s) you have in place to hire the requisite expertise.

2. Describe your history of managing federal funds generally. You must identify and provide information regarding the status of any adverse audit findings from an OMB Circular A-133 audit, an audit conducted by a federal, state, tribal, or local government inspector general or similar organization, or audits conducted by the U.S. General Accounting Office. You also must note whether you are, or have previously been, required to comply with special "high risk" terms and conditions under agency regulations implementing OMB Circular A-102.

When EPA invites applicants to submit Final Proposals, EPA may provide additional information about Final Proposal guidelines.

Go to Part 5. Final Proposal Guidelines

Table of Contents

1. The National Brownfields Program and the New Brownfields Law 3
1.1. Background 3
1.2. The New Brownfields Law 3

2. Summary of Brownfields Grant Programs 5
2.1. Applicant Eligibility 5
2.2. Assessment Grant Program 6
2.3. Revolving Loan Fund Grant Program 6
2.4. Cleanup Grant Program 7

3. Proposal Submission and Selection Process Overview 9
3.1. Step 1–Initial Proposals 10
3.2. Step 2–Final Proposals 11
3.3. Final Selection and Funding Award 11
3.4. Proposal Submission Schedule 12
3.5. General Proposal Requirements 12

4. Initial Proposal Guidelines 15
4.1. Preliminary Information 16
4.2. Assessment Grants 18
4.3. Revolving Loan Fund Grants 20
4.4. Cleanup Grants 24

5. Final Proposal Guidelines 29
5.1. Assessment Grants 29
5.2. Revolving Loan Fund Grants 32
5.3. Cleanup Grants 35

Appendix 1. EPA Regional and Headquarters Contacts 39

Appendix 2. Prohibitions on Use of Funds 41

Appendix 3. Guidance on Sites Eligible for Brownfields Funding Under CERCLA §104(k) 43

Appendix 4. Guidance for Requests for Property-Specific Determinations for Funding 55