EPA Press Release

FOR RELEASE: OCTOBER 1, 1996

EPA ANNOUNCES 16 NEW BROWNFIELDS GRANTS TO CLEAN UP AND REVITALIZE URBAN COMMUNITIES

Lauren Milone Mical: 202-260-4358

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Carol M. Browner today announced an expansion of the Clinton Administration's Brownfields Economic Redevelopment Initiative by adding 16 new pilot projects totaling $2.06 million in 12 states to help clean up and redevelop brownfields -- abandoned, contaminated urban properties. Each of these pilots will receive grants ranging from $90,000 to $200,000 over two years to help clean up, redevelop and return to productive community use lightly polluted, abandoned commercial properties that lie idle in cities -- creating jobs, accelerating economic growth, increasing property values, stimulating tax revenues, and revitalizing neighborhoods in urban areas. Since the President's Brownfields Initiative was announced in November 1993, 76 pilot projects are being funded and will serve as national models for cleanup and redevelopment.

Today, the President said, "Cleaning up and redeveloping the land that lies idle and contaminated in the middle of our communities is one of the most important things we can do to protect the environment and revitalize America's cities. Our Brownfields Initiative is working in cities across the country, helping to create jobs, bring in new investment, restore hope and renew our communities."

EPA Administrator Carol M. Browner said, "This program is a cornerstone of the Clinton Administration's efforts to help our nation's cities in ways that make economic and environmental sense. By returning abandoned industrial properties into thriving, productive centers of activities we are protecting the health of our families, the health of our communities and the health of our economy."

The newly selected pilot projects include: $90,000 for Concord, N.H.; $90,000 for Naugatuck Valley, Conn.; $120,000 for New Haven, Conn.; $90,000 for Portland, Maine; $100,000 for Somerville, Mass.; $200,000 for Cincinnati, Ohio; $200,000 for a consortium of communities in the suburbs of Dearborn, Mich.; $100,000 for Kalamazoo, Mich.; $200,000 for Milwaukee County, Wis.; $100,000 for Bonne Terre, Mo.; $100,000 for Oakland, Calif.; $100,000 for Port of Bellingham, Wash.; $100,000 for Silver Valley, Idaho; and $100,000 for the Puyallup Tribe in Tacoma, Wash. These projects were chosen and funded by EPA regional offices, based on criteria designed to meet regional priorities. These pilots are intended to be models for revitalizing urban contaminated properties.

Brownfields projects yield economic benefits and protect the environment by encouraging development on existing sites, rather than in undeveloped areas. Developers are sought to restore abandoned sites to new uses, increasing property values, stimulating tax revenues and revitalizing inner-city neighborhoods. These Brownfields grants are intended to be used as seed money to help:

• assess contamination at abandoned inner-city sites,
• involve community residents in all aspects of assessment, cleanup and redevelopment,
• including review of how the land will be used in the future,
• leverage other public and private funds to attract economic activity,
• resolve liability concerns, and
• serve as models for other communities seeking effective redevelopment approaches.

Grants to cities are one important part of the Clinton Administration's three-pronged approach to cleaning up and redeveloping urban brownfields, which began in November 1993. The Administration's approach also includes: taking 25,000 low-priority toxic waste sites off of the Superfund inventory, removing the stigma of contamination that might prevent developers from considering these less contaminated sites; and the President's proposed $2 billion brownfields tax incentive, which would encourage cleanup and redevelopment of some 30,000 brownfields nationwide by allowing developers to fully deduct from their taxes the costs of environmental cleanups for brownfields in the same year that the costs are incurred.

For more information, the general public can call the RCRA/Superfund Hotline at 1-800-424-9346 or 703-412-9810.