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

These guidelines are provided pursuant to Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance # 66.818. The Small Business Liability Relief and Brownfields Revitalization Act ("Brownfields Law" or "the Law", P.L. 107-118) requires the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to publish guidance to assist applicants in preparing proposals for grants to address brownfield sites. This law defines a brownfield site as "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," as defined in the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act of 1980 §101(39), as amended (CERCLA). The law further defines the term "brownfield site" to include a site that "is contaminated by a controlled substance...; is contaminated by petroleum or a petroleum product excluded from the definition of 'hazardous substance'...; is mine-scarred land."

In the early 1990s, stakeholders expressed their concerns to EPA about the problems associated with brownfields across the country. More than 600,000 properties that were once used for industrial, manufacturing, or commercial uses were lying abandoned or underused due to the suspicion of hazardous substance contamination. Brownfield areas, particularly those in city centers, were contributing to blight and joblessness in surrounding communities. Unknown environmental liabilities were preventing communities, developers, and investors from restoring these properties to productive use and revitalizing impacted neighborhoods.

In 1994, EPA responded to the brownfield problem with an environmental protection approach that is locally based, encourages strong public-private partnerships, and promotes innovative and creative ways to assess, clean up, and redevelop brownfield sites. This approach empowers state, tribal, and local environmental and economic development officials to oversee brownfield activities, and encourages implementing local solutions to local problems. EPA also has provided funding to create local environmental job training programs to ensure that the economic benefits derived from brownfield revitalization efforts remain in local neighborhoods.

On January 11, 2002, the President signed into law the Small Business Liability Relief and Brownfields Revitalization Act (Brownfields Law). The Brownfields Law expands potential federal financial assistance for brownfield revitalization, including grants for assessment, cleanup, and job training. The Law also limits the liability of certain contiguous property owners and prospective purchasers of brownfield properties, and clarifies innocent landowner defenses to encourage revitalization and reuse of brownfield sites. The Brownfields Law also includes provisions to establish and enhance state and tribal response programs, which will continue to play a critical role in the successful cleanup and revitalization of brownfields.

The Brownfields Law contains provisions that are important for grant applicants to keep in mind when using these guidelines. Some of those features are summarized below. ¹

Applicant Eligibility

• The Brownfields Law expands eligibility for brownfields funding by broadening the entities eligible for funding by permitting the award of cleanup grants to eligible entities, including nonprofit organizations, that own the property they wish to clean up. EPA has adopted a definition of nonprofit organizations that includes universities and other nonprofit educational institutions. In addition, EPA will continue its policy of accepting proposals from "coalitions," or groups of eligible entities, to pool their revolving loan capitalization grant funds. A coalition is a group of two or more eligible entities which submits one revolving loan fund (RLF) grant application under the name of one of the coalition participants. The grant recipient must administer the RLF grant, is accountable to EPA for proper expenditure of the funds, and will be the point of contact for the other coalition members.

Site Eligibility

• The Brownfields Law defines a brownfield site broadly, but does exclude certain sites from funding eligibility unless EPA makes a property-specific determination to fund (see Appendix 3 for additional information). This determination will be based on whether or not awarding a grant will protect human health and the environment and either promote economic development or enable the property to be used for parks, greenways, and similar recreational or nonprofit purposes. (See Appendix 3 and Appendix 4 for more information on "eligibility for funding" and "property-specific determinations.")

• The Brownfields Law excludes the following three types of properties from funding eligibility and prohibits EPA from making property-specific determinations on these properties: 1.) Facilities listed (or proposed for listing) on the National Priorities List (NPL); 2.) Facilities subject to unilateral administrative orders, court orders, administrative orders on consent or judicial consent decrees issued to or entered into by parties under CERCLA; and 3.) Facilities that are subject to the jurisdiction, custody or control, of the United States government. (Note: Land held in trust by the United States government for an Indian tribe is eligible for brownfields funding.)

Petroleum Eligibility

• Generally, the Law allows EPA to award brownfield grant funds for activities at petroleum-contaminated sites that: 1) EPA or the state determines are of "relatively low risk" compared with other petroleum-contaminated sites in the state; 2) EPA or the state determines have no viable responsible party and that will be assessed, investigated, or cleaned up by a person that is not potentially liable for cleaning up the site; and 3) are not subject to a Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) 9003(h) order. EPA must make available 25 percent of the total grant funds for assessment and/or cleanup of petroleum-contaminated sites. EPA has designed these guidelines to allow applicants to specify the amount of funding that will be used at petroleum-contaminated sites. (See Appendix 3 for additional information.)

Cost Share

• The Brownfields Law requires a 20 percent cost share for revolving loan fund (RLF) and cleanup grants. There is no cost share requirement for assessment grants. For example, a $200,000 cleanup grant will require a $40,000 cost share; a $1 million RLF grant will require a $200,000 cost share. Applicants may seek a waiver of this cost share due to hardship. EPA will consider hardship waiver requests on a case-by-case basis and will approve such requests on a limited basis. Refer to the Cost Share threshold criteria in the RLF and cleanup grant sections for additional information.

Prohibition on Administrative Costs

• Grant funds cannot be used for administrative costs. Please note that proposal preparation costs, including associated consultant fees, are ineligible administrative costs. (See Appendix 2 for additional information.)

Additional Uses/Restrictions of Grant Funds

• Grant funds cannot be used to pay response costs at a brownfield site for which the recipient of the grant or loan is potentially liable under CERCLA §107. Under CERCLA §107, present and past owners or operators, parties that arranged for the treatment or disposal of hazardous substances, and parties that accept hazardous substances for transport to disposal or treatment facilities are potentially liable for cleanup up or paying the cost of cleaning up a site. Thus, an owner of contaminated land may be liable even though they did not cause or contribute to the contamination at the site. CERCLA §107 does not apply to petroleum sites. The Brownfields Law established liability protection for innocent land owners, contiguous property owners and bona fide prospective purchasers of contaminated land. Applicants that own a contaminated site may qualify for one of these landowner liability protections. For example, applicants that purchased contaminated land on or after the enactment date of the Brownfields Law (January 11, 2002) and meet the statutory landowner liability protection criteria may use brownfield grant funding at that site. However, applicants that knowingly purchased contaminated property before January 11, 2002, are not eligible for a landowner liability protection and are, therefore, prohibited from using grant funds at that site.² (See Appendix 2, Prohibition on Use of Funds, for additional information on prohibitions).

• Under the Brownfields Law, a local government (as defined in 40 CFR Part 31.3, Local Government) may use up to 10 percent of its grant funds for monitoring the health of populations exposed to one or more hazardous substances, pollutants, or contaminants from a brownfield site and monitoring and enforcement of any institutional control used to prevent human exposure to any hazardous substance, pollutant, or contaminant from a brownfield site. The term local government does not include state or tribal governments but may include, among others, public housing authorities, school districts and councils of governments. To effectively oversee assessments and cleanups, local governments may use grant funds (within the overall 10 percent limit) for other related program development and implementation activities (e.g., writing local brownfield-related ordinances) described in their EPA approved scope of work.

Three competitive brownfields grant programs are discussed in these guidelines: assessment grants, revolving loan fund (RLF) grants, and cleanup grants.

Assessment grants provide funding for a grant recipient to inventory, characterize, assess, and conduct cleanup and redevelopment planning and community involvement related to brownfield sites.

• Applicants may apply for both Community-Wide and Site-Specific assessment grants, as discussed below. However, an applicant is limited to submitting only ONE hazardous substance assessment grant proposal and ONE petroleum assessment proposal (refer to the chart). In the event that an applicant submits more proposals than allowed, EPA will clarify with the applicant to identify which proposal(s) must be withdrawn from the grant competition.

• An eligible entity may submit no more than 2 assessment proposals.

• The performance period for assessment grants is two years. Refer to Appendix 2, Prohibitions on Use of Funds, for information on activities that may not be funded using brownfields grant funds.

Community-Wide

• An applicant may apply for a Community-wide assessment grant if a specific site has not been identified or if the assessment will address more than one site within the community. An applicant may discuss potential assessment sites in a Community-wide proposal; however, EPA's acceptance of the proposal does not constitute a determination by EPA that the sites identified in the proposal are eligible. EPA reserves the right to approve sites as part of the workplan negotiation and upon commencement of the work. Community-wide assessment grant applicants may focus their proposal on classes or categories of sites, (e.g. abandoned gas stations, sites with environmental justice concerns, sites in a designated redevelopment area) rather than identifying and discussing specific sites.

• Applicants electing to apply for up to $200,000 for a community-wide hazardous substance assessment grant are not eligible for a site-specific hazardous substance assessment grant in the same grant competition. Similarly, applicants applying for up to $200,000 for a Community-wide petroleum or petroleum product assessment grant will not be eligible for a Site-specific petroleum assessment grant.

Site-specific

• A Site-specific assessment grant must be applied for if the assessment is limited to one, and only one, site. A Site-specific assessment grant application must be made if a waiver of the funding limitation is requested.

• Applicants will not be allowed to substitute another site for a Site-specific assessment grant where the subject site is determined to be ineligible.

Total Assessment Funding Limit per Applicant/Number of Proposals to be submitted

• Applicants are subject to community-wide and site-specific assessment grant funding limitations.

• An applicant may apply for up to $200,000 for a community-wide assessment grant for hazardous substances, and up to $200,000 for a community-wide assessment grant for petroleum; OR

• An applicant may apply for up to $200,000 for a site-specific assessment grant for hazardous substances, and up to $200,000 for a site-specific assessment grant for petroleum; OR

• An applicant may apply for up to $200,000 for a community-wide assessment grant for hazardous substances, and up to $200,000 for a site-specific assessment grant for petroleum; OR

• An applicant may apply for up to $200,000 for a community-wide assessment grant for petroleum, and up to $200,000 for a site-specific assessment grant for hazardous substances.

• Proposals for assessment of hazardous substance contamination and hazardous substance contamination co-mingled with petroleum must be submitted separately from proposals for petroleum or petroleum product contamination. DO NOT submit proposals that combine requests to assess hazardous substances with requests to assess petroleum or petroleum product. In the event that an applicant submits more proposals than allowed, EPA will clarify with the applicant to identify which proposal(s) must be withdrawn from the grant competition.

Site-specific Assessment Grant Waiver

• An applicant may seek a waiver of the $200,000 limit for a Site-specific proposal and request up to $350,000 for a single site. Such waivers must be based on the anticipated level of contamination, the size, or status of ownership of the site. Sites contaminated by hazardous substances, pollutants, or contaminants may include hazardous substances co-mingled with petroleum. Site-specific proposals for sites contaminated by petroleum or petroleum product require separate grant proposals and waiver requests from those for sites contaminated or co-mingled with hazardous substances.

• Community-wide assessment grants are not eligible for assessment grant "waivers."

Proposals For Community-Wide and Site-Specific Assessment Grants

The following examples may assist you in understanding the funding limitations applied to assessment grants:

• The performance period for these grants is two years.

• Refer to Appendix 2, Prohibitions on Use of Funds, for information on activities that may not be funded using brownfields grant funds.

Revolving Loan Fund (RLF) grants provide funding for a grant recipient to capitalize a revolving loan fund and to provide subgrants to carry out cleanup activities at brownfield sites.

• An eligible entity may submit ONE proposal for up to $1,000,000 for an initial RLF grant.

• These funds may be used to address sites contaminated by petroleum and/or hazardous substances, pollutants, or contaminants (including hazardous substances co-mingled with petroleum). If the proposal is for both petroleum and hazardous substances, pollutants, or contaminants, the budget must reflect the distribution of funds (petroleum vs. hazardous substances).

• Proposals may be submitted by "coalitions," or groups of eligible entities, to pool their revolving loan capitalization grant funds. A coalition is a group of two or more eligible entities which submits one grant application under the name of one of the coalition participants. The grant recipient must administer the grant, be accountable to EPA for proper expenditure of the funds, and be the point of contact for the other coalition members. Members of the coalition other than the grant recipient must submit letters agreeing to be part of the coalition.

• Coalitions of eligible entities may apply together under one recipient for up to $1,000,000 per eligible entity.

• An RLF grant recipient must use at least 60 percent of the awarded funds to capitalize and implement a revolving loan fund. Revolving loan funds generally are used to provide no-interest or low-interest loans for brownfields cleanups. An applicant may make intra-governmental loans and loans to for-profit organizations as long as they are not potentially liable at the site. An RLF grant recipient also may use its funds to award subgrants to other eligible entities, including nonprofit organizations, for brownfields cleanups on sites owned by the subgrantee; however, an RLF grant recipient may use no more than 40 percent of the awarded funds for cleanup subgrants and may not subgrant to itself. An applicant cannot make a loan or subgrant to a potentially liable party at the site. An RLF grant recipient may not make a cleanup subgrant that exceeds $200,000 per site. In the case of a coalition, the RLF grant recipient may subgrant to other coalition members. Unlike loans, cleanup subgrants do not require repayment.

• An RLF award requires a 20 percent cost share, which may be in the form of a contribution of money, labor, material, or services, and must be for eligible and allowable costs (the match must equal 20 percent of the amount of funding provided by EPA and cannot include administrative costs, as described in Appendix 2). An RLF grant applicant may request a waiver of the 20 percent cost share requirement based on hardship.

• The performance period for these grants is five years.

• Refer to Appendix 2, Prohibitions on Use of Funds, for information on activities that may not be funded using brownfields grant funds.

Cleanup grants provide funding for a grant recipient to carry out cleanup activities at brownfield sites.

• An eligible entity may apply for up to $200,000 per site. Due to budget limitations, no entity may apply for funding cleanup activities at more than five sites. These funds may be used to address sites contaminated by petroleum and hazardous substances, pollutants, or contaminants (including hazardous substances co-mingled with petroleum).

• A separate proposal must be submitted for each site. If more than one cleanup proposal is submitted for the same site, EPA will clarify with the applicant as to which proposal must be withdrawn from the competition.

• If an applicant elects to submit a proposal for both hazardous substance and petroleum funding for the same site, the funding amount cannot exceed the $200,000 site limit AND the budget must reflect the amount of hazardous substance funding and the amount of petroleum funding requested. Failure to comply will result in the deduction of points in the budget ranking criteria.

• Cleanup grants require a 20 percent cost share, which may be in the form of a contribution of money, labor, material, or services, and must be for eligible and allowable costs (the match must equal 20 percent of the amount of funding provided by EPA and cannot include administrative costs, as described in Appendix 2). A cleanup grant applicant may request a waiver of the 20 percent cost share requirement based on hardship.

• In order to receive a cleanup grant, the applicant must own the property for which they are applying by the time the grant is awarded and no later than September 30, 2005. For the purposes of these guidelines, the term "own" means fee simple title.

• A minimum of a Phase I site assessment must be completed prior to proposal submission.

• The performance period for these grants is two years.

• Refer to Appendix 2, Prohibitions on Use of Funds, for information on activities that may not be funded using brownfields grant funds.

EPA estimates that $100 million will be available to make up to 200 grant awards, contingent upon the availability of funds in FY 2005. EPA reserves the right to reject any or all proposals or applications and make no awards.

Eligible applicants, including those with existing brownfields grants, may apply for one, or all, of the grant programs. The following table indicates, by grant program, what types of entities are eligible to receive EPA funds for brownfields assessment, RLF, and cleanup grants:

In addition to applicant eligibility, the proposal guidelines describe other statutory- and policy-based threshold criteria (e.g., Community Notification, State or Tribal Environmental Authority Letter, Site Eligibility and Property Ownership Eligibility, Cleanup Authority and Oversight Structure, Cost Share).

Electronic copies of these guidelines can be obtained from the EPA brownfields web site (www.epa.gov/brownfields) or by contacting your Regional Brownfields Contact listed in Appendix 1.

Proposal Submission

Applicants must submit a separate proposal for each grant type that they are applying for (i.e., assessment, revolving loan fund, and/or cleanup.) Each proposal must address the threshold and ranking criteria identified for each grant activity type. Every proposal must stand on its own merits based on the responses given to the criteria relevant to the grant type for which the proposal is for and must not reference responses to criteria in another proposal.

• Applicants who exceed the maximum number of proposals allowable for each grant type will be contacted by EPA to determine which proposals must be withdrawn from the competition.
• To submit a proposal, applicants must send an original proposal to Don West, Environmental Management Support, Inc., 8601 Georgia Avenue, Suite 500, Silver Spring, MD 20910, phone 301-589-5318, and a copy to their Regional Brownfields Coordinator at the addresses shown in Appendix 1. Refer to the section, What Are the General Proposal Requirements?, for instructions on preparing proposals. Proposals must be postmarked by the U.S. Postal Service or sent via registered or tracked mail to Environmental Management Support, Inc. and the appropriate Regional representative by November 12, 2004. Please do not fax or hand-deliver proposals. Failure to meet the deadline will result in the proposal being eliminated from the competition.

All materials included in the proposal (including maps and other attachments) must be printed on letter-sized paper (8½" by 11"), a minimum of one-inch margins, and font sizes may be no smaller than 12 points. Proposals received by EPA will be copied and distributed to appropriate reviewers; therefore, do not use binders and color printing. Proposals must be no more than 15 single-sided pages in length, not including the cover letter (two-page limit) and attachments. Pages in excess of this limit will be removed and not evaluated. While there are certain mandatory attachments (e.g., state letter, legal opinions for RLF proposals, property-specific determination information for excluded sites, non-profit status documentation, state petroleum determinations), attachments must be kept to a minimum. Please note that applicants may be asked by EPA to present other documentation such as community notification documentation, etc. upon review of the threshold criteria. Please do not include photos. DO NOT INCLUDE RESPONSES TO RANKING CRITERIA (E.G., BUDGET) AS ATTACHMENTS. Applicants must clearly mark information they consider confidential. EPA will make final confidentiality decisions in accordance with Agency regulations in 40 CFR Part 2, Subpart B.

Proposals should be concise and well organized. Proposals must provide the information requested in the guidelines and respond to each criterion. Factual information about your proposed project and community must be provided. Proposals must not include discussions of broad principles that are not specific to the proposed work or project. Responses to criteria must include the criteria number and title but need not restate the entire text of the criteria.

Yes. EPA will post Frequently Asked Questions on its website at www.epa.gov/brownfields. In addition, if resources permit, EPA Regions may conduct open meetings with potential applicants. Please check with your regional office for date and location information. EPA Regions will also respond to questions from individual applicants about any of the threshold criteria, including site eligibility and property ownership. Upon request, Regional staff may review pertinent documents relating to these threshold criteria. However, in accordance with EPA's Competition Policy, EPA staff will not meet with individual applicants to discuss draft proposals, provide informal comments on draft proposals, or provide advice to applicants on how to respond to ranking criteria.

EPA has established a competitive system for awarding grants to applicants whose proposals have received the highest rankings.

• Proposals will be evaluated and ranked by evaluation panels. EPA Regional Offices will evaluate responses to threshold criteria on a pass/fail basis and national panels will evaluate responses to ranking criteria (e.g., Budget, Community Need, et al) on a numerical scoring basis. If a proposal fails to meet a threshold requirement, it will receive no further consideration. However, EPA Regional Offices may seek clarification from an applicant regarding its response to the threshold criteria, if appropriate. (Note: EPA will not seek clarification on an applicant's Cover Letter or their response to any ranking criteria.) The panels will score each eligible proposal on the basis of the evaluation criteria described in the guidelines. The panel scores will be used by EPA staff to determine rankings for use by EPA senior management in selecting grantees. EPA Regions may provide an advisory score to the evaluation panels on an applicant's response to the Ability to Manage Grants ranking criterion. This advisory score may take into account the Region's experience, if any, with the applicant's performance on grants managed by the Region.

• Funding requests for each grant type will be evaluated and ranked separately.

• Final selections will be made by EPA senior management based upon the ranking of proposals by National Evaluation Panels. EPA decisions may take into account other statutory and policy considerations (see below).

• Successful proposal applicants will be informed in writing of their selection. EPA plans to announce the grant recipients in late March/early April 2005. Unsuccessful applicants will also be informed in writing.

Statutory and policy considerations that EPA may take into account when selecting the grant recipients include fair distribution of funds between urban and non-urban and other geographic factors; compliance with the statutory petroleum funding allocation; the benefits of promoting the long-term availability of funds under the RLF grants; designation as a federal Empowerment Zone, Enterprise Community, or Renewal Community; population; whether the applicant is a federally recognized Indian tribe; and whether the proposed project may assist to address environmental justice concerns in the area. In addition, special consideration will be given to projects committed to achieving recognized green building and/or energy efficiency building standards. Examples include Energy Star, U.S. Green Building Council Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Rating System, California Collaborative for High Performance Schools, Austin Green Builder Program or equivalent standards.

Funding will be awarded as a cooperative agreement. EPA anticipates substantial involvement with the cooperative agreement recipient. The applicants whose proposals are selected will be asked to submit a cooperative agreement application package to their EPA Regional office. This package will include an EPA-approved work plan, a final budget, and required forms. Cooperative agreements approved under this final selection step will include terms and conditions. These terms and conditions will be binding on the grant recipient and cover areas such as complying with all applicable federal and state laws and ensuring that cleanups protect human health and the environment. Applicants also will be required to submit progress reports in accordance with grant regulations found in 40 CFR 30.51 or 40 CFR 31.40. In addition, successful grant applicants will be required to provide a Dun and Bradstreet Data Universal Numbering System (DUNS) number, which is now required when applying for federal grants or cooperative agreements on or after October 2003. For more information, please go to www.grants.gov. EPA will work closely with the applicant to process and finalize the cooperative agreement package.

Any disputes regarding proposals or applications submitted in response to these guidelines will be resolved in accordance with 40 CFR 30.63 and Part 31, Subpart F.

In accordance with Executive Order 12372, EPA encourages applicants to contact their State Intergovernmental Review Office early so that the required intergovernmental review process may begin immediately upon selection by EPA. If the state does not have an Intergovernmental Review Office, the successful applicant must provide notice of the proposed agreement directly to affected state, area-wide, regional, and local entities. Contact your Regional Brownfields Contact for assistance, if needed.

Please refer to Appendix 1 of the proposal guidelines for your EPA Regional Brownfields Contact.

A Cover Letter, Applicant Information, and applicable mandatory attachments (e.g., state letter, legal opinions for RLF proposals, property-specific determination information for excluded sites, state petroleum determinations) must accompany every proposal. Reminder: Applicants are to submit SEPARATE proposals for EACH type of grant (assessment, revolving loan fund, cleanup) for which you are applying.

Please provide the following for EACH grant proposal you are preparing:

1. Cover Letter

Submission of a cover letter is required. The cover letter should briefly (maximum 2 pages) describe your overall Brownfields project and how funding this proposal will advance your project goals. The letter must be prepared on the applicant's letterhead and signed by an official of your organization. Failure to submit a cover letter with each proposal will result in the rejection of the proposal from this competition.

NOTE FOR APPLICANTS APPLYING FOR MORE THAN ONE GRANT: If you are applying for multiple assessment or cleanup grants, provide a separate cover letter for each proposal.

2. Applicant Information

1. Project Title: Be as specific as possible.

2. Grant Type: 1.) Identify the type of grant you are applying for (i.e., assessment, RLF, or cleanup) and 2.) the type of contamination to be addressed by grant funding (i.e., hazardous substance and/or petroleum). If applying for an assessment grant, indicate whether you are applying for Community Wide hazardous substance funding, Community Wide petroleum funding, Site Specific hazardous substance funding or Site Specific petroleum funding.

3. Total Dollar Amount Requested for this Grant: Specify the actual dollar amount of federal funds you are requesting (do not include cost share or in-kind) and identify whether you are requesting hazardous substance funding, petroleum funding, or both. For example, $200,000 hazardous substance; $150,000 petroleum. For Site Specific assessment grant proposals only: if applying for an assessment waiver of up to an additional $150,000, please include this in the dollar amount. For example, $350,000 hazardous substance.

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

Note: For RLF coalitions, it is not necessary to list the coalition members. However, the entity named here will be considered the cooperative agreement recipient.

5. 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.

6. 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 in the coalition.

7. Location: City, county, and state or Indian Reservation, tribally-owned 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.

8. Population: 1.) Provide the general population of your jurisdiction. 2.) If you are not a municipal form of government, provide the population of the area addressed by this proposal. Tribes must provide the number of tribal/non-tribal members affected.

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

9. Other: Indicate whether you are a federally recognized tribe; federally designated Empowerment Zone/Enterprise Community; or federally designated Renewal Community.

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, the ranking criteria will not be evaluated. An eligible entity may submit no more than two assessment proposals. (Refer to Assessment Grant section).

Threshold Criteria for Assessment Grants

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

1. Applicant Eligibility

Describe how you are an eligible entity for the grant for which you are applying. Refer to the description of applicant eligibility in the section Who Can Apply?

2. Community Notification

The applicant is responsible for conducting community notification. Describe how the targeted community(ies) was/were notified of the preparation and submission of this grant proposal. You must clearly demonstrate that you have made a copy(ies) of this grant proposal available for public review and have provided an opportunity for public comment prior to submitting this proposal. This may include putting a notice of availability in the local newspaper or other widely available/accessible local media asking for public comment; discussing a brownfields proposal during an open government meeting; holding a public meeting; notifying affected residents door-to-door. Notifications must be current and related to this specific proposal being submitted for consideration. Failure to demonstrate community notification will result in failure of this proposal. Applicants who are submitting more than one proposal may opt to have a single community notification. However, all targeted communities must receive the notification and be provided an opportunity to comment on the proposal(s) relevant to their community. Please note that the notification is to citizens or members of the public, not exclusively to government officials. EPA reserves the right to request documentation of community notification as part of its threshold review of the proposal.

3. Letter from the State or Tribal Environmental Authority

For an applicant other than a state or tribal environmental authority, attach a current letter from the appropriate state or tribal environmental authority acknowledging that the applicant plans to conduct assessment activities and is planning to apply for Federal grant funds. If you are applying for multiple types of grant program activities, you need to submit only one letter acknowledging the relevant grant activities. However, you must provide the letter as an attachment to EACH proposal. Please note that general correspondence and documents evidencing state involvement with the project (i.e., state enforcement orders or state notice letters) are NOT acceptable. Please provide advance notice to the appropriate state or tribal environmental authority to allow adequate time to receive the letter to accompany your proposal.

4. Site Eligibility and Property Ownership Eligibility (Site Specific Proposals Only)

If you are submitting a Community Wide assessment grant proposal, please move on to the ranking criteria in the next section. If you are submitting a Site Specific assessment grant proposal, address the following for the site. If the site does not pass the threshold criteria below, an applicant may not substitute other sites.

1. 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.

2. Affirm that the site is a.) not listed or proposed for listing on the National Priorities List; b.) not subject to unilateral administrative orders, court orders, administrative orders on consent, or judicial consent decrees issued to or entered into by parties under CERCLA; and c.) Not subject to the jurisdiction, custody, or control of the United States government. (Note: Land held in trust by the United States government for an Indian tribe is eligible for brownfield funding.) Please refer to Appendix 3.

3. Identify a.) the name of the site; b.) the address of the site; c.) whether this site is contaminated by petroleum or hazardous substances; d.) the operational history and current uses(s) of the site; and e.) environmental concerns, if known, at the site.

4. If the applicant determines a property-specific determination is needed for the site to be eligible, the applicant must attach information requested in Appendix 4, Section 4.1.

If the site is a petroleum site, please proceed to question #11. If the site is a hazardous substance site, please continue responding to the questions in order.

5. Explain the phase of assessment, if any, that has been completed to date. Provide dates of the assessment(s).

6. Identify a.) who currently owns the site; b.) when they became owner; and c.) from whom the site was acquired.

7. Identify how the site became contaminated and, to the extent possible, describe the nature and extent of the contamination.

8. Identify known ongoing or anticipated environmental enforcement actions related to the brownfield site for which funding is sought. Describe any inquiries or orders from federal, state, or local government entities that the applicant is aware of regarding the responsibility of any party for the contamination or hazardous waste at the site. The information provided in this section may be verified, and EPA may conduct an independent review of information related to the applicant's responsibility for the contamination or hazardous waste at the site.

9. If the site is not owned by the applicant:

   1. describe your relationship with the owner;
   2. describe the owner's role in the work to be performed; and
   3. indicate how you will gain access to the site.

10. If you, the applicant, own the site:

    1. describe how you took ownership of the site (e.g., tax foreclosure, purchase, donation, eminent domain) and date of acquisition;
    2. identify whether or not all disposal of hazardous substances at the site occurred before you acquired the property;
    3. describe any inquiry into the previous ownership, uses of the property, and environmental conditions prior to taking ownership; describe in detail:
       • the types of site assessments performed (e.g., ASTM Phase I or equivalent); and
       • who performed the assessments and identify his/her qualifications to perform such work;

    4. describe the uses of the site since your ownership began through the present; provide a timeline with dates and details of the uses;
    5. describe if you, in any way, are potentially liable, or affiliated with any other person who is potentially liable, for contamination at the site;
    6. identify any known parties who may be considered potentially liable for the contamination on the site, and describe any familial, contractual, corporate or financial relationship that you have with potentially liable parties at the site;
    7. describe the appropriate care that you exercised with respect to hazardous substances found at the facility by taking REASONABLE STEPS to:
       • stop any continuing releases;
       • prevent any threatened future release;
       • prevent or limit exposure to any previously released hazardous substance

       Please note that reasonable steps may include actions such as limiting access to the property, monitoring known contaminants, and complying with state and/or local requirements.

    8. confirm your commitment to:
       • comply with all land use restrictions and institutional controls;
       • assist and cooperate with those performing the cleanup and to provide access to the property;
       • comply with all information requests and administrative subpoenas that have or may be issued in connection with the property; and
       • provide all legally required notices.

Applicants that own contaminated land should be aware that achieving and maintaining landowner liability protections, ensuring eligibility for Brownfield grant funds, and complying with the terms and conditions on the uses of grant funds at brownfield sites requires that they meet certain continuing obligations. For example: grantees must comply with land use restrictions and institutional controls; take reasonable steps with respect to the hazardous substances on the property; cooperate, assist and allow access to authorized representatives; and comply with CERCLA information requests and subpoenas and provide legally required notices. For more information on the obligations of owners of contaminated property, please see EPA's Common Elements Reference Sheet at http://www.epa.gov/compliance/resources/policies/cleanup/superfund/common-elem-ref.pdf.

11. Petroleum Sites (Proceed to the ranking criteria if you do not have a petroleum site.)

The Brownfields Law allows certain sites contaminated with petroleum or petroleum product to be eligible for brownfields grant funding. Eligibility will be determined by EPA or the state, as appropriate (See Appendix 3, part 3.3.2 Contamination by Petroleum or Petroleum Product for a description of the eligibility requirements).

Non-Tribal applicants must provide the information requested below to your state, so that the state can make the necessary determinations on petroleum site eligibility in Appendix 3, part 3.3.2. Include any response to your request received from your state regarding site eligibility with this proposal. If you do not receive a response from your state by the deadline for filing proposals, please indicate this in your proposal cover letter. (Note: You must provide EPA with the date you requested your state to make the petroleum site determinations. EPA will make the petroleum site eligibility determination if a state is unable to do so following a request from an applicant.)

Tribal applicants must submit the following information with their proposal to EPA. EPA will make the petroleum site eligibility determinations for Tribes.

Provide the following information to your state and to EPA:

1. Provide the following information to your state and to EPA:

2. Acquisition of Site. Identify when and by what method the current owner acquired the property (e.g., purchase, tax foreclosure, donation, eminent domain).

3. No Responsible Party for the Site. Identify whether the current and immediate past owner dispensed or disposed of petroleum or petroleum product, or exacerbated the existing petroleum-contamination at the site, and whether the current and immediate past owner took reasonable steps with regard to the contamination at the site.

4. Cleaned Up by a Person Not Potentially Liable. Identify whether you (the applicant) dispensed or disposed of petroleum or petroleum product, or exacerbated the existing petroleum-contamination at the site, and whether you took reasonable steps with regard to the contamination at the site.

5. Relatively Low Risk. Identify whether the site is of "relatively low risk" compared to other petroleum or petroleum product-only contaminated sites in the state in which the site is located, including whether the site is receiving or using Leaking Underground Storage Tank (LUST) Trust Fund monies.

6. Judgments, Orders, or Third Party Suits. Provide information that no responsible party is identified for the site through, either:
   (1) a judgment rendered in a court of law or an administrative order that would require any person to assess, investigate, or clean up the site; or
   (2) an enforcement action by federal or state authorities against any party that would require any person to assess, investigate, or clean up the site; or
   (3) a citizen suit, contribution action or other third party claim brought against the current or immediate past owner, that would, if successful, require the assessment, investigation, or cleanup of the site.

7. Subject to RCRA. Identify whether the site is subject to any order under section 9003(h) of the Solid Waste Disposal Act.

8. Financial Viability of Responsible Parties. For any current or immediate past owners identified as responsible for the contamination at the site, provide information regarding whether they have the financial capability to satisfy their obligations under federal or state law to assess, investigate or clean up the site. Note: If no responsible party is identified in (c) or (f) above, then the petroleum-contaminated site may be eligible for funding. If a responsible party is identified above, EPA or the state must next determine whether that party is viable. If any such party is determined to be viable, then the petroleum-contaminated site may not be eligible for funding.

Your request to a state or EPA for the determination on site eligibility also must include a brief explanation of why the information requested above is not available.

Ranking Criteria for Assessment Grants

Note that responses for Community Wide assessment proposals should address the entire target community. There is no need to identify potential sites in a Community Wide proposal.

1. Assessment Grant Proposal Budget (a maximum of 10 points may be received for this criterion)

Provide the proposed budget for your proposal, including a detailed description and narrative of each task. Typical tasks might include "Phase I/II Assessments," "Community Outreach," and "Cleanup Planning." Budgets that include some site assessment or cleanup planning activities will be ranked more favorably than those that focus only on inventory or planning activities. The narrative must provide a basis for the tasks. The budget must show the distribution of funds, including cost estimates for each of the proposed activities. If you are applying for an assessment waiver up to $350,000, your budget and tasks must reflect this.

If you plan not to expend federal funds on otherwise eligible activities (e.g., community involvement, programmatic expenses associated with reporting), please describe these activities (i.e., in-kind) in the budget narrative and indicate the source(s) of funding.

A local government may use up to 10 percent of its grant funds for monitoring the health of populations exposed to one or more hazardous substances, pollutants, or contaminants from a brownfield site and monitoring and enforcement of any institutional control used to prevent human exposure to any hazardous substance, pollutant, or contaminant from a brownfield site. To effectively oversee assessments and cleanups, local governments may use grant funds (subject to the 10 percent limit) for other related program development and implementation activities (e.g., writing local brownfield-related ordinances). Activities planned for the 10 percent category must be included in a separate budget task.

Sample Format for Budget

Provide responses to the following assessment ranking criteria:

2. Community Need (a maximum of 15 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 for the target community 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). Identify the source for this information.
   2. Explain how the targeted community will benefit from this grant.
   3. Characterize the impact of brownfields on your target 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.


3. Site Selection Process (a maximum of 5 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. Sustainable Reuse of Brownfields (a maximum of 10 points may be received for this criterion)

Describe how this grant would support the goals listed below and, specifically, how your plans, development regulations, policies and programs will achieve these goals.

1. prevent pollution and reduce resource consumption (strategies to do so may include green building, clean energy production, alternative stormwater management, eco-industrial development, environmentally beneficial landscaping, and/or others);

2. promote economic benefits (e.g., an expanded tax base, increased investment, job creation, enhanced property values through adjacent greenspace creation, and/or others);

3. promote a vibrant community characterized by a mix of uses, appropriate density, housing choice and walkability (strategies to do so may include smart growth, new urbanism, linked recreational and park areas, and/or others);

4. reuse existing infrastructure (e.g., existing roads, rail/bus/subway services, buildings, utility services, sidewalks/pedestrian/bicycle trails, recreational services, landscaping, neighborhood centers/institutions);

5. promote transportation choices (e.g., public transportation, bike-to-work/walk-to-work opportunities, and/or others); and

6. prevent future brownfields (through such activities as brownfields inventories, active communication with operating facilities, preventing land abandonment, and/or others).

5. Creation and/or Preservation of Greenspace/Open Space or Nonprofit Purpose (a maximum of 5 points may be received for this criterion)

Describe the extent to which the grant would facilitate the creation of, preservation of, or addition to a park, greenway, undeveloped property, recreational property, or other property used for nonprofit purposes. If this grant would result in such creation or addition (e.g., a new or expanded community park), what specific regulations, policies, or programs, are (or will be) in place to provide for long-term management and care? If this grant would result in such preservation (e.g. preserving outlying greenfields by focusing development on brownfields) what specific regulations, policies, or programs, are (or will be) in place to assure long-term management, care and preservation?

6. Community Involvement (a maximum of 15 points may be received for this criterion)

EPA encourages early community notification and continuing community involvement.

1. Discuss your plan for involving the targeted community (e.g., neighborhood organizations, citizens' groups, borrowers, redevelopers, and other stakeholders) in cleanup decisions or reuse planning. Describe what community involvement activities, if any, have already occurred.

2. Describe your efforts and/or plans to develop partnerships at the local, state, and/or tribal level with other stakeholders to ensure appropriate and sustainable cleanup and redevelopment of brownfields in your targeted community.

3. Describe your specific plans for communicating the progress of your project to citizens, including plans for communicating in languages indigenous to the community or other efforts to reach the targeted community as well as the broader community.

4. Provide a list of the community-based organizations involved in this project and a contact person, phone number, and a brief description of the organization's activities and representation (these organizations may include, but are not limited to, local citizen groups, environmental organizations, civic organizations, local business groups and institutions, educational institutions, and local labor organizations). Community-based organizations do not include the local planning department, the local fire department, or the mayor's office.

Note: EPA may conduct reference checks to ensure that organizations identified are supportive and involved with the brownfields project.

7. Reduction of Threats to Human Health and the Environment (a maximum of 20 points may be received for this criterion)

1. Describe how the funds will be used to address/facilitate the identification and/or reduction of threats to human health and the environment within the target area (including cancer, asthma, or birth defects) that may be associated with exposure to hazardous substances, pollutants, contaminants, or petroleum.

2. Describe whether you are working with your state or tribal environmental authority and/or local public health department to ensure protectiveness of human health and the environment, and to ensure the consideration of public health issues, during both the cleanup and the redevelopment process.

8. Leveraging of Additional Resources (a maximum of 10 points may be received for this criterion)

1. Describe the financial needs for each phase of the project (assessment, cleanup, and redevelopment), if known. For example, assessment of the property is estimated at $300,000; cleanup of the property is estimated at $500,000; redevelopment of the property into an XX-square foot office building is estimated at $2.5 million.

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 or that you are pursuing to fill in any remaining funding gaps to ensure the success of this project.

9. Ability to Manage Grants (a maximum of 10 points may be received for this criterion)

1. Demonstrate your ability to manage this grant and oversee all phases of work under this grant. Or describe the system(s) you have in place to acquire the requisite expertise.

2. Describe your history of managing federal funds. 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.

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

4. If you are, or have been, a recipient of an EPA Brownfields cooperative agreement(s), indicate the year of award and the amount of funds remaining.

5. If you are, or have been, a recipient of an EPA Brownfields cooperative agreement(s), highlight significant accomplishments generated through the use of the funds.

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, the ranking criteria will not be evaluated. An eligible entity (or coalition of eligible entities) may submit only ONE revolving loan fund proposal. The proposal can be for hazardous substance funding; petroleum funding; or a combination of both (but it cannot exceed the funding limitations for RLF grants).

Threshold Criteria for RLF Grants

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

1. Applicant Eligibility

Describe how you are an eligible entity for the grant for which you are applying. Refer to the description of applicant eligibility in the section Who Can Apply?

Note: Coalition applicants for RLF grants must document how all coalition members are eligible entities. All coalition members must submit a letter in which they agree to be part of the coalition.

2. Community Notification

The applicant is responsible for conducting community notification. Describe how the targeted community(ies) was/were notified of the preparation and submission of this grant proposal. You must clearly demonstrate that you have made a copy(ies) of this grant proposal available for public review and have provided an opportunity for public comment prior to submitting this proposal. State-wide coalition revolving loan fund proposals must document state-wide notification. This may include putting a notice of availability in the local newspaper or other widely available/accessible local media asking for public comment; discussing a brownfields proposal during an open government meeting; holding a public meeting; notifying affected residents door-to-door. Notifications must be current and related to this specific proposal being submitted for consideration. Failure to demonstrate community notification will result in failure of this proposal. Applicants who are submitting more than one proposal may opt to have a single community notification. However, all targeted communities must receive the notification and be provided an opportunity to comment on the proposal(s) relevant to their community. Please note that the notification is to citizens or members of the public, not exclusively to government officials. EPA reserves the right to request documentation of community notification as part of its threshold review of the proposal.

3. Letter from the State or Tribal Environmental Authority

For an applicant other than a state or tribal environmental authority, attach a current letter from the appropriate state or tribal environmental authority acknowledging that the applicant plans to establish a revolving loan fund and conduct cleanup activities and is planning to apply for Federal grant funds. If you are applying for multiple types of grant program activities, you need to submit only one letter acknowledging the relevant grant activities. However, you must provide the letter as an attachment to EACH proposal. Please note that general correspondence and documents evidencing state involvement with the project (i.e., state enforcement orders or state notice letters) are NOT acceptable. Please provide advance notice to the appropriate state or tribal environmental authority to allow adequate time to receive the letter to accompany your proposal.

4. Site Eligibility and Property Ownership Eligibility (Site Specific Proposals Only)

If you do not have specific sites identified, please move on to threshold criterion E. If you have identified specific sites, address the following for the site. If the site does not pass the threshold criteria below, an applicant may not substitute other sites.

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

2. Affirm that the site is a.) not listed or proposed for listing on the National Priorities List; b.) not subject to unilateral administrative orders, court orders, administrative orders on consent, or judicial consent decrees issued to or entered into by parties under CERCLA; and c.) Not subject to the jurisdiction, custody, or control of the United States government. (Note: Land held in trust by the United States government for an Indian tribe is eligible for brownfield funding.) Please refer to Appendix 3.

3. Identify a.) the name of the site; b.) the address of the site; c.) whether this site is contaminated by petroleum or hazardous substances; d.) the operational history and current uses(s) of the site; and e.) environmental concerns, if known, at the site.

4. If the applicant determines a property-specific determination is needed for the site to be eligible, the applicant must attach information requested in Appendix 4, Section 4.1.

If the site is a petroleum site, please proceed to question #11. If the site is a hazardous substance site, please continue responding to the questions in order.

5. Explain the phase of assessment that has been completed to date. A minimum of an ASTM or equivalent Phase I site assessment must be completed prior to proposal submission. Provide the date of the site assessment(s). If additional assessment work is needed, please explain:
   

   1. How much assessment is remaining?
   2. What is the estimated cost of the remaining assessment?
   3. What is the source of funds to pay for the remaining assessment?
   4. What is the schedule for completing the assessment?

6. Identify a.) who currently owns the site; b.) when they became owner; and c.) from whom the site was acquired.

Note: For subgrants, the subgrantee must own the site.

7. Identify how the site became contaminated and, to the extent possible, describe the nature and extent of the contamination.

8. Identify known ongoing or anticipated environmental enforcement actions related to the brownfield site for which funding is sought. Describe any inquiries or orders from federal, state, or local government entities that the applicant is aware of regarding the responsibility of any party for the contamination or hazardous waste at the site. The information provided in this section may be verified, and EPA may conduct an independent review of information related to the applicant's responsibility for the contamination or hazardous waste at the site.

9. If the site is not owned by the applicant:

   1. describe your relationship with the owner;
   2. describe the owner's role in the work to be performed; and
   3. indicate how you will gain access to the site.

10. If you, the applicant, own the site:

    1. describe how you took ownership of the site (e.g., tax foreclosure, purchase, donation, eminent domain) and date of acquisition;
    2. identify whether or not all disposal of hazardous substances at the site occurred before you acquired the property;
    3. describe any inquiry into the previous ownership, uses of the property, and environmental conditions prior to taking ownership; describe in detail:
    • the types of site assessments performed (e.g., ASTM Phase I or equivalent);
    • who performed the assessments and identify his/her qualifications to perform such work;
    4. describe the uses of the site since your ownership began through the present; provide a timeline with dates and details of the uses;
    5. describe if you, in any way, are potentially liable, or affiliated with any other person who is potentially liable, for contamination at the site;
    6. identify any known parties who may be considered potentially liable for the contamination on the site, and describe any familial, contractual, corporate or financial relationship that you have with potentially liable parties at the site;
    7. describe the appropriate care that you exercised with respect to hazardous substances found at the facility by taking REASONABLE STEPS to:
    • stop any continuing releases;
    • prevent any threatened future release;
    • prevent or limit exposure to any previously released hazardous substance

    Please note that reasonable steps may include actions such as limiting access to the property, monitoring known contaminants, and complying with state and/or local requirements.

    8. confirm your commitment to:
    • comply with all land use restrictions and institutional controls;
    • assist and cooperate with those performing the cleanup and to provide access to the property;
    • comply with all information requests and administrative subpoenas that have or may be issued in connection with the property; and
    • provide all legally required notices.

Applicants that own contaminated land should be aware that achieving and maintaining landowner liability protections, ensuring eligibility for Brownfield grant funds, and complying with the terms and conditions on the uses of grant funds at brownfield sites requires that they meet certain continuing obligations. For example: grantees must comply with land use restrictions and institutional controls; take reasonable steps with respect to the hazardous substances on the property; cooperate, assist and allow access to authorized representatives; and comply with CERCLA information requests and subpoenas and provide legally required notices. For more information on the obligations of owners of contaminated property, please see EPA's Common Elements Reference Sheet at http://www.epa.gov/compliance/resources/policies/cleanup/superfund/common-elem-ref.pdf.

11. Petroleum Sites (Proceed to threshold criterion E if you do not have a petroleum site.)

The Brownfields Law allows certain sites contaminated with petroleum or petroleum product to be eligible for brownfields grant funding. Eligibility will be determined by EPA or the state, as appropriate (See Appendix 3, part 3.3.2 Contamination by Petroleum or Petroleum Product for a description of the eligibility requirements).

Non-Tribal applicants must provide the information requested below to your state, so that the state can make the necessary determinations on petroleum site eligibility in Appendix 3, part 3.3.2. Include any response to your request received from your state regarding site eligibility with this proposal. If you do not receive a response from your state by the deadline for filing proposals, please indicate this in your proposal cover letter. (Note: You must provide EPA with the date you requested your state to make the petroleum site determinations. EPA will make the petroleum site eligibility determination if a state is unable to do so following a request from an applicant.)

Tribal applicants must submit the following information with their proposal to EPA. EPA will make the petroleum site eligibility determinations for Tribes.

Provide the following information to your state and to EPA:

1. Identify the current and immediate past owner of the site.

2. Acquisition of Site. Identify when and by what method the current owner acquired the property (e.g., purchase, tax foreclosure, donation, eminent domain).

3. No Responsible Party for the Site. Identify whether the current and immediate past owner dispensed or disposed of petroleum or petroleum product, or exacerbated the existing petroleum-contamination at the site, and whether the current and immediate past owner took reasonable steps with regard to the contamination at the site.

4. Cleaned Up by a Person Not Potentially Liable. Identify whether you (the applicant) dispensed or disposed of petroleum or petroleum product, or exacerbated the existing petroleum-contamination at the site, and whether you took reasonable steps with regard to the contamination at the site.

5. Relatively Low Risk. Identify whether the site is of "relatively low risk" compared to other petroleum or petroleum product-only contaminated sites in the state in which the site is located, including whether the site is receiving or using Leaking Underground Storage Tank (LUST) Trust Fund monies.

6. Judgments, Orders, or Third Party Suits. Provide information that no responsible party is identified for the site through, either:
   (1) a judgment rendered in a court of law or an administrative order that would require any person to assess, investigate, or clean up the site; or
   (2) an enforcement action by federal or state authorities against any party that would require any person to assess, investigate, or clean up the site; or
   (3) a citizen suit, contribution action or other third party claim brought against the current or immediate past owner, that would, if successful, require the assessment, investigation, or cleanup of the site.

7. Subject to RCRA. Identify whether the site is subject to any order under section 9003(h) of the Solid Waste Disposal Act.

8. Financial Viability of Responsible Parties. For any current or immediate past owners identified as responsible for the contamination at the site, provide information regarding whether they have the financial capability to satisfy their obligations under federal or state law to assess, investigate or clean up the site.

Note: If no responsible party is identified in (c) or (f) above, then the petroleum-contaminated site may be eligible for funding. If a responsible party is identified above, EPA or the state must next determine whether that party is viable. If any such party is determined to be viable, then the petroleum-contaminated site may not be eligible for funding.

Your request to a state or EPA for the determination on site eligibility also must include a brief explanation of why the information requested above is not available.

5. Cleanup Authority and Oversight Structure

Please note that you will be required to comply with all applicable Federal and State laws; and ensure that the cleanup protects human health and the environment.

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 response program. If you do not plan to require loan or subgrant recipients to enroll in a state or tribal response program, or an appropriate state or tribal response program is not available, you will be required to consult with U.S. EPA to ensure cleanups are protective of human health and the environment. Therefore, if you do not plan to require loan or subgrant recipients to enroll in a state or tribal response program, provide a description of the technical expertise you have to conduct, manage, and oversee 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 the competitive procurement provisions of 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.

Note: For coalitions, the applicant must have the broader jurisdiction, authority and program capacity to ensure adequate program performance of coalition members, borrowers, and/or subgrantees, if warranted.

6. Cost Share

RLF grant recipients are required by the Brownfields Law to provide a 20 percent cost share.³ 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 a contribution of labor, material, or other services, it must be incurred for an eligible and allowable expense under the grant and not for ineligible expenses, such as administrative costs (see Appendix 2 for a discussion of prohibited costs).

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.

Describe your plans for providing the cost share, including the sources of the funding or services, as required for this RLF grant. 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.

7. Legal Authority to Manage a Revolving Loan Fund

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. Applicant must attach a legal opinion.

Ranking Criteria for RLF Grants

1. RLF Grant Proposal Budget (a maximum of 10 points may be received for this criterion)

Provide the proposed budget for your proposal, including a detailed description and narrative of each task. Typical tasks might include "Community Involvement," "Establishing the Revolving Fund," "Marketing the Revolving Fund," "Operating the Revolving Fund," "Cleanup Planning," and "Overseeing Site Cleanup." The narrative must provide a basis for the tasks. The budget also must reflect your cost share. The budget must show the distribution of funds, including cost estimates for each of the proposed activities. Please note that the sample budget below provides for separate budgets for loans and subgrants. An RLF grant recipient may not make a cleanup subgrant that exceeds $200,000 per site.

If your proposal is requesting both hazardous substance and petroleum funding, please provide two separate budgets to reflect the amount of hazardous substance and petroleum funding and the tasks associated with the funding.

A local government may use up to 10 percent of its grant funds for monitoring the health of populations exposed to one or more hazardous substances, pollutants, or contaminants from a brownfield site and monitoring and enforcement of any institutional control used to prevent human exposure to any hazardous substance, pollutant, or contaminant from a brownfield site. To effectively oversee assessments and cleanups, local governments may use grant funds (subject to the 10 percent limit) for other related program development and implementation activities (e.g., writing local brownfield-related ordinances). Activities planned for the 10 percent category must be included in a separate budget task.

Sample Format for Budget

2. Community Need (a maximum of 15 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 for the target community 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). Identify the source for this information.

2. Explain how the targeted community will benefit from this grant.

3. Characterize the impact of brownfields on your targeted 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.

3. Site Selection Process (a maximum of 5 points may be received for this criterion)

1. Describe your process for selecting borrowers and/or subgrantees.

2. Describe how sites were selected/will be selected, what site selection criteria were/will be developed, and how eligibility determinations were/will be made.

4. Description of Target Market and Business Plan for RLF Loans and Subgrants (a maximum of 20 points may be received for this criterion)

1. Describe your target market and how you plan to reach them. Include the types of borrowers and subgrantees (i.e., small businesses, developers, local governments) and types of sites (i.e., single property, multiple properties, geographic area) you plan to reach. Describe the balance of projected loans and subgrants and how this balance will promote the long-term availability of the RLF.

2. Describe your business plan including loan structure, interest and repayment rate, 5- and 10-year timeline for loans and subgrants and program incentives (EZ, EC, or RC benefits, tax credits, TIF, public and private investment leverage goals).

3. If you plan to award subgrants under the RLF, describe how you will take the following into consideration⁴:
   

   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.

4. Describe how you will make full and effective use of the RLF within the grant period. Include in your discussion an implementation schedule and time line for your use of the RLF funds.

5. Sustainable Reuse of Brownfields (a maximum of 10 points may be received for this criterion)

Describe how this grant would support the goals listed below and, specifically, how your plans, development regulations, policies and programs will achieve these goals.

1. prevent pollution and reduce resource consumption (strategies to do so may include green building, clean energy production, alternative stormwater management, eco-industrial development, environmentally beneficial landscaping, and/or others);

2. promote economic benefits (e.g., an expanded tax base, increased investment, job creation, enhanced property values through adjacent greenspace creation, and/or others);

3. promote a vibrant community characterized by a mix of uses, appropriate density, housing choice and walkability (strategies to do so may include smart growth, new urbanism, linked recreational and park areas, and/or others);

4. reuse existing infrastructure (e.g., existing roads, rail/bus/subway services, buildings, utility services, sidewalks/pedestrian/bicycle trails, recreational services, landscaping, neighborhood centers/institutions);

5. promote transportation choices (e.g., public transportation, bike-to-work/walk-to-work opportunities, and/or others); and

6. prevent future brownfields (through such activities as brownfields inventories, active communication with operating facilities, preventing land abandonment, and/or others).

6. Creation and/or Preservation of Greenspace/Open Space or Nonprofit Purpose (a maximum of 5 points may be received for this criterion)

Describe the extent to which the grant would facilitate the creation of, preservation of, or addition to a park, greenway, undeveloped property, recreational property, or other property used for nonprofit purposes. If this grant would result in such creation or addition (e.g., a new or expanded community park), what specific regulations, policies, or programs, are (or will be) in place to provide for long-term management and care? If this grant would result in such preservation (e.g. preserving outlying greenfields by focusing development on brownfields) what specific regulations, policies, or programs, are (or will be) in place to assure long-term management, care and preservation?

7. Community Involvement (a maximum of 15 points may be received for this criterion)

EPA encourages early community notification and continuing community involvement.

1. Discuss your plan for involving the targeted community (e.g., neighborhood organizations, citizens' groups, borrowers, redevelopers, and other stakeholders) in cleanup decisions or reuse planning. Describe what community involvement activities, if any, have already occurred.

2. Describe your efforts and/or plans to develop partnerships at the local, state, and/or tribal level with other stakeholders to ensure appropriate and sustainable cleanup and redevelopment of brownfields in your targeted community.

3. Describe your specific plans for communicating the progress of your project to citizens, including plans for communicating in languages indigenous to the community or other efforts to reach the targeted community as well as the broader community.

4. Provide a list of the community-based organizations involved in this project and a contact person, phone number, and a brief description of the organization's activities and representation (these organizations may include, but are not limited to, local citizen groups, environmental organizations, civic organizations, local business groups and institutions, educational institutions, and local labor organizations). Community-based organizations do not include the local planning department, the local fire department, or the mayor's office.

Note: EPA may conduct reference checks to ensure that organizations identified are supportive and involved with the brownfields project.

8. Reduction of Threats to Human Health and the Environment (a maximum of 20 points may be received for this criterion)

1. Describe how the funds will be used to address/facilitate the identification and/or reduction of threats to human health and the environment within the target area (including cancer, asthma, or birth defects) that may be associated with exposure to hazardous substances, pollutants, contaminants, or petroleum.

2. Describe whether you are working with your state or tribal environmental authority and/or local public health department to ensure protectiveness of human health and the environment, and to ensure the consideration of public health issues, during both the cleanup and the redevelopment process.

3. If known, describe the proposed cleanup plan for the site and the estimated costs to complete the cleanup; also describe how the proposed cleanup plan for the site will reduce threats to human health and the environment.

4. If proposed cleanup plan is known, describe how you will ensure the proposed cleanup plan will be protective of human health and the environment, and will comply with all applicable Federal and State laws.

5. If engineering controls (e.g. fences, pavements: asphalt, concrete, flexible, membrane fiber, vegetative cover, vapor barriers) are planned, discuss your plans for operation and maintenance; enforcement, and long-term monitoring and how these costs will be covered. Also, include how institutional controls will be managed and tracked to ensure cleanups remain protective of human health and the environment.

9. Leveraging of Additional Resources (a maximum of 10 points may be received for this criterion)

1. Describe the financial needs for each phase of the project (cleanup and redevelopment), if known. For example, cleanup of the property is estimated at $500,000; redevelopment of the property into an XX-square foot office building is estimated at $2.5 million.

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. If you are applying as a coalition, describe the resources (i.e., funding, services, expertise) that the coalition members are contributing as part of the coalition.

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

10. Ability to Manage Grants/Management Structure (a maximum of 10 points may be received for this criterion)

1. Demonstrate your ability to manage this grant and oversee all phases of work under this grant. Or describe the system(s) you have in place to acquire the requisite expertise.

2. Describe your history of managing federal funds. 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.

3. 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.

4. 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., contract⁵ or subgrant⁶) that is planned.

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

6. If you are, or have been, a recipient of an EPA Brownfields cooperative agreement(s), indicate the year of award and the amount of funds remaining.

7. If you are, or have been, a recipient of an EPA Brownfields cooperative agreement(s), highlight significant accomplishments generated through the use of the funds.

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, the ranking criteria will not be evaluated.

Note: An eligible entity may apply for up to $200,000 per site. Due to budget limitations, no entity may apply for cleanup funding at more than five (5) sites. Applicants must submit a separate proposal for each site. Each proposal will be evaluated separately and funding decisions will be independent for each site. If EPA determines that the threshold criteria for the site are not met, the applicant cannot substitute other sites. If an applicant elects to submit a proposal for both hazardous substance and petroleum funding for the same site, the funding amount cannot exceed the $200,000 site limit.

Threshold Criteria for Cleanup Grants

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

1. Applicant Eligibility

Describe how you are an eligible entity for the grant for which you are applying. Refer to the description of applicant eligibility in the section Who Can Apply?. If you are a non-profit organization, you must provide documentation, as an attachment to this proposal, indicating non-profit status.

Note: In order to receive a cleanup grant, the applicant must own the property for which they are applying by the time the grant is awarded and no later than September 30, 2005. For the purposes of these guidelines, the term "own" means fee simple title.

2. Community Notification

The applicant is responsible for conducting community notification. Describe how the targeted community(ies) was/were notified of the preparation and submission of this grant proposal. You must clearly demonstrate that you have made a copy(ies) of this grant proposal available for public review and have provided an opportunity for public comment prior to submitting this proposal. This may include putting a notice of availability in the local newspaper or other widely available/accessible local media asking for public comment; discussing a brownfields proposal during an open government meeting; holding a public meeting; notifying affected residents door-to-door. Notifications must be current and related to this specific proposal being submitted for consideration. Failure to demonstrate community notification will result in failure of this proposal. Applicants who are submitting more than one proposal may opt to have a single community notification. However, all targeted communities must receive the notification and be provided an opportunity to comment on the proposal(s) relevant to their community. Please note that the notification is to citizens or members of the public, not exclusively to government officials. EPA reserves the right to request documentation of community notification as part of its threshold review of the proposal.

3. Letter from the State or Tribal Environmental Authority

For an applicant other than a state or tribal environmental authority, attach a current letter from the appropriate state or tribal environmental authority acknowledging that the applicant plans to conduct cleanup activities and is planning to apply for Federal grant funds. If you are applying for multiple types of grant program activities, you need to submit only one letter acknowledging the relevant grant activities. However, you must provide the letter as an attachment to EACH proposal. Please note that general correspondence and documents evidencing state involvement with the project (i.e., state enforcement orders or state notice letters) are NOT acceptable. Please provide advance notice to the appropriate state or tribal environmental authority to allow adequate time to receive the letter to accompany your proposal.

4. Site Eligibility and Property Ownership Eligibility

For the site, provide the following:

1. Affirm that the site is a.) not listed or proposed for listing on the National Priorities List; b.) not subject to unilateral administrative orders, court orders, administrative orders on consent, or judicial consent decrees issued to or entered into by parties under CERCLA; and c.) Not subject to the jurisdiction, custody, or control of the United States government. (Note: Land held in trust by the United States government for an Indian tribe is eligible for brownfield funding.) Please refer to Appendix 3.

2. Identify a.) the name of the site; b.) the address of the site; c.) whether this site is contaminated by petroleum or hazardous substances; d.) the operational history and current uses(s) of the site; and e.) environmental concerns, if known, at the site.

3. If the applicant determines a property-specific determination is needed for the site to be eligible, the applicant must attach information requested in Appendix 4, Section 4.1.

If the site is a petroleum site, please proceed to question #8. If the site is a hazardous substance site, please continue responding to the questions in order.

4. Identify how the site became contaminated and, to the extent possible, describe the nature and extent of the contamination.

5. Explain the phase of assessment that has been completed to date. A minimum of an ASTM or equivalent Phase I site assessment must be completed prior to proposal submission. Provide the date of the site assessment(s). If additional assessment work is needed, please explain:

   1. How much assessment is remaining?
   2. What is the estimated cost of the remaining assessment?
   3. What is the source of funds to pay for the remaining assessment?
   4. What is the schedule for completing the assessment?

6. Identify known ongoing or anticipated environmental enforcement actions related to the brownfield site for which funding is sought. Describe any inquiries or orders from federal, state, or local government entities that the applicant is aware of regarding the responsibility of any party for the contamination or hazardous waste at the site. The information provided in this section may be verified, and EPA may conduct an independent review of information related to the applicant's responsibility for the contamination or hazardous waste at the site.

7. 1. Describe how you took ownership of the site (e.g., tax foreclosure, purchase, donation, eminent domain) and date of acquisition. If you have not yet taken ownership of the site, describe how you will take ownership of the site by the time the grant is awarded and no later than September 30, 2005;
   2. identify whether or not all disposal of hazardous substances at the site occurred before you acquired the property;
   3. describe any inquiry into the previous ownership, uses of the property, and environmental conditions prior to taking ownership; describe in detail:
   • the types of site assessments performed (e.g., ASTM Phase I or equivalent); and
   • who performed the assessments and identify his/her qualifications to perform such work;
   4. describe the uses of the site since your ownership began through the present; provide a timeline with dates and details of the uses;
   5. describe if you, in any way, are potentially liable, or affiliated with any other person who is potentially liable, for contamination at the site;
   6. identify any known parties who may be considered potentially liable for the contamination on the site, and describe any familial, contractual, corporate or financial relationship that you have with potentially liable parties at the site;
   7. describe the appropriate care that you exercised with respect to hazardous substances found at the facility by taking REASONABLE STEPS to:
   • stop any continuing releases;
   • prevent any threatened future release;
   • prevent or limit exposure to any previously released hazardous substance

   Please note that reasonable steps may include actions such as limiting access to the property, monitoring known contaminants, and complying with state and/or local requirements.

   8. confirm your commitment to:
   • comply with all land use restrictions and institutional controls;
   • assist and cooperate with those performing the cleanup and to provide access to the property;
   • comply with all information requests and administrative subpoenas that have or may be issued in connection with the property; and
   • provide all legally required notices.

Applicants that own contaminated land should be aware that achieving and maintaining landowner liability protections, ensuring eligibility for Brownfield grant funds, and complying with the terms and conditions on the uses of grant funds at brownfield sites requires that they meet certain continuing obligations. For example: grantees must comply with land use restrictions and institutional controls; take reasonable steps with respect to the hazardous substances on the property; cooperate, assist and allow access to authorized representatives; and comply with CERCLA information requests and subpoenas and provide legally required notices. For more information on the obligations of owners of contaminated property, please see EPA's Common Elements Reference Sheet at http://www.epa.gov/compliance/resources/policies/cleanup/superfund/common-elem-ref.pdf.

8. Petroleum Sites (Proceed to threshold criterion E if you do not have a petroleum site.)

The Brownfields Law allows certain sites contaminated with petroleum or petroleum product to be eligible for brownfields grant funding. Eligibility will be determined by EPA or the state, as appropriate (See Appendix 3, part 3.3.2 Contamination by Petroleum or Petroleum Product for a description of the eligibility requirements).

Non-Tribal applicants must provide the information requested below to your state, so that the state can make the necessary determinations on petroleum site eligibility in Appendix 3, part 3.3.2. Include any response to your request received from your state regarding site eligibility with this proposal. If you do not receive a response from your state by the deadline for filing proposals, please indicate this in your proposal cover letter. (Note: You must provide EPA with the date you requested your state to make the petroleum site determinations. EPA will make the petroleum site eligibility determination if a state is unable to do so following a request from an applicant.)

Tribal applicants must submit the following information with their proposal to EPA. EPA will make the petroleum site eligibility determinations for Tribes.

Provide the following information to your state and to EPA:

1. Identify the current and immediate past owner of the site.
2. Acquisition of Site. Identify when and by what method the current owner acquired the property (e.g., purchase, tax foreclosure, donation, eminent domain).
3. No Responsible Party for the Site. Identify whether the current and immediate past owner dispensed or disposed of petroleum or petroleum product, or exacerbated the existing petroleum-contamination at the site, and whether the current and immediate past owner took reasonable steps with regard to the contamination at the site.
4. Cleaned Up by a Person Not Potentially Liable. Identify whether you (the applicant) dispensed or disposed of petroleum or petroleum product, or exacerbated the existing petroleum-contamination at the site, and whether you took reasonable steps with regard to the contamination at the site.
5. Relatively Low Risk. Identify whether the site is of "relatively low risk" compared to other petroleum or petroleum product-only contaminated sites in the state in which the site is located, including whether the site is receiving or using Leaking Underground Storage Tank (LUST) Trust Fund monies.
6. Judgments, Orders, or Third Party Suits. Provide information that no responsible party is identified for the site through, either:
   (1) a judgment rendered in a court of law or an administrative order that would require any person to assess, investigate, or clean up the site; or
   (2) an enforcement action by federal or state authorities against any party that would require any person to assess, investigate, or clean up the site; or
   (3) a citizen suit, contribution action or other third party claim brought against the current or immediate past owner, that would, if successful, require the assessment, investigation, or cleanup of the site.
7. Subject to RCRA. Identify whether the site is subject to any order under section 9003(h) of the Solid Waste Disposal Act.
8. Financial Viability of Responsible Parties. For any current or immediate past owners identified as responsible for the contamination at the site, provide information regarding whether they have the financial capability to satisfy their obligations under federal or state law to assess, investigate or clean up the site. Note: If no responsible party is identified in (c) or (f) above, then the petroleum-contaminated site may be eligible for funding. If a responsible party is identified above, EPA or the state must next determine whether that party is viable. If any such party is determined to be viable, then the petroleum-contaminated site may not be eligible for funding.

Your request to a state or EPA for the determination on site eligibility also must include a brief explanation of why the information requested above is not available.

5. Cleanup Authority and Oversight Structure

Please note that you will be required to comply with all applicable Federal and State laws; and ensure that the cleanup protects human health and the environment.

1. Describe how you will oversee the cleanup at the site. Indicate whether you plan to enroll in a state or tribal response program. If you do not plan to enroll in a state or tribal response program, or an appropriate state or tribal response program is not available, you will be required to consult with U.S. EPA to ensure cleanups are protective of human health and the environment. Therefore, if you do not plan to enroll in a state or tribal response program, provide a description of the technical expertise you have to conduct, manage, and oversee 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 the competitive procurement provisions of 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.

6. Cost Share

Cleanup grant recipients are required by the 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 $200,000 of federal cleanup funds, you must provide a cost share of an additional $40,000. 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 a contribution of labor, material, or other services, it must be incurred for an eligible and allowable expense under the grant and not for ineligible expenses, such as administrative costs (see Appendix 2 for a discussion of prohibited costs).

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.

Describe your plans for providing the cost share, including the sources of the funding or services, as required for this cleanup grant. 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.

Ranking Criteria for Cleanup Grants

1. Cleanup Grant Budget (a maximum of 10 points may be received for this criterion)

Provide the proposed budget(s) for your proposal, including a detailed description and narrative of each task. Typical tasks might include "Community Involvement," "Site Cleanup," and "Cleanup Planning." The narrative must provide a basis for the tasks. The budget also must reflect your cost share. The budget(s) must show the distribution of funds, including cost estimates for each of the proposed activities.

If your proposal is requesting both hazardous substance and petroleum funding, please provide two separate budgets to reflect the amount of hazardous substance and petroleum funding and the tasks associated with the funding.

A local government may use up to 10 percent of its grant funds for monitoring the health of populations exposed to one or more hazardous substances, pollutants, or contaminants from a brownfield site and monitoring and enforcement of any institutional control used to prevent human exposure to any hazardous substance, pollutant, or contaminant from a brownfield site. To effectively oversee assessments and cleanups, local governments may use grant funds (subject to the 10 percent limit) for other related program development and implementation activities (e.g., writing local brownfield-related ordinances). Activities planned for the 10 percent category must be included in a separate budget task.

Sample Format for Budget

2. Community Need (a maximum of 15 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 for the target community 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). Identify the source for this information.

2. Explain how the targeted community will benefit from this grant.

3. Characterize the impact of brownfields on your targeted 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.

3. Sustainable Reuse of Brownfields (a maximum of 10 points may be received for this criterion)

Describe how this grant would support the goals listed below and, specifically, how your plans, development regulations, policies and programs will achieve these goals.

1. prevent pollution and reduce resource consumption (strategies to do so may include green building, clean energy production, alternative stormwater management, eco-industrial development, environmentally beneficial landscaping, and/or others);
2. promote economic benefits (e.g., an expanded tax base, increased investment, job creation, enhanced property values through adjacent greenspace creation, and/or others);
3. promote a vibrant community characterized by a mix of uses, appropriate density, housing choice and walkability (strategies to do so may include smart growth, new urbanism, linked recreational and park areas, and/or others);
4. reuse existing infrastructure (e.g., existing roads, rail/bus/subway services, buildings, utility services, sidewalks/pedestrian/bicycle trails, recreational services, landscaping, neighborhood centers/institutions);
5. promote transportation choices (e.g., public transportation, bike-to-work/walk-to-work opportunities, and/or others); and
6. prevent future brownfields (through such activities as brownfields inventories, active communication with operating facilities, preventing land abandonment, and/or others).

4. Creation and/or Preservation of Greenspace/Open Space or Nonprofit Purpose (a maximum of 5 points may be received for this criterion)

Describe the extent to which the grant would facilitate the creation of, preservation of, or addition to a park, greenway, undeveloped property, recreational property, or other property used for nonprofit purposes. If this grant would result in such creation or addition (e.g., a new or expanded community park), what specific regulations, policies, or programs, are (or will be) in place to provide for long-term management and care? If this grant would result in such preservation (e.g. preserving outlying greenfields by focusing development on brownfields) what specific regulations, policies, or programs, are (or will be) in place to assure long-term management, care and preservation?

5. Community Involvement (a maximum of 15 points may be received for this criterion)

EPA encourages early community notification and continuing community involvement.

1. Discuss your plan for involving the targeted community (e.g., neighborhood organizations, citizens' groups, borrowers, redevelopers, and other stakeholders) in cleanup decisions and reuse planning for the site, including making cleanup-related documents available to the public and soliciting public comment on the analysis of cleanup alternatives. Describe what community involvement activities, if any, have already occurred.

2. Describe your efforts and/or plans to develop partnerships at the local, state, and/or tribal level with other stakeholders to ensure appropriate and sustainable cleanup and redevelopment of brownfields in your targeted community.

3. Describe your specific plans for communicating the progress of your project to citizens, including plans for communicating in languages indigenous to the community or other efforts to reach the targeted community as well as the broader community.

4. Provide a list of the community-based organizations involved in this project and a contact person, phone number, and a brief description of the organization's activities and representation (these organizations may include, but are not limited to, local citizen groups, environmental organizations, civic organizations, local business groups and institutions, educational institutions, and local labor organizations). Community-based organizations do not include the local planning department, the local fire department, or the mayor's office.

Note: EPA may conduct reference checks to ensure that organizations identified are supportive and involved with the brownfields project.

6. Reduction of Threats to Human Health and the Environment (a maximum of 25 points may be received for this criterion)

1. Describe how the funds will be used to address/facilitate the identification and/or reduction of threats to human health and the environment within the target area (including cancer, asthma, or birth defects) that may be associated with exposure to hazardous substances, pollutants, contaminants, or petroleum.

2. Describe whether you are working with your state or tribal environmental authority and/or local public health department to ensure protectiveness of human health and the environment, and to ensure the consideration of public health issues, during both the cleanup and the redevelopment process.

3. Describe the proposed cleanup plan for the site and the estimated costs to complete the cleanup; also describe how the proposed cleanup plan for the site will reduce threats to human health and the environment.

4. Describe how you will ensure the proposed cleanup plan will be protective of human health and the environment, and will comply with all applicable Federal and State laws.

5. If engineering controls (e.g. fences, pavements: asphalt, concrete, flexible, membrane fiber, vegetative cover, vapor barriers) are planned, discuss your plans for operation and maintenance; enforcement, and long-term monitoring and how these costs will be covered. Also, include how institutional controls will be managed and tracked to ensure cleanups remain protective of human health and the environment.

7. Leveraging of Additional Resources (a maximum of 10 points may be received for this criterion)

1. Describe the financial needs for each phase of the project (cleanup and redevelopment), if known. For example, cleanup of the property is estimated at $500,000; redevelopment of the property into an XX-square foot office building is estimated at $2.5 million.

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 or that you are pursuing to fill in any remaining funding gaps to ensure the success of this project.

8. Ability to Manage Grants (a maximum of 10 points may be received for this criterion)

1. Describe your ability to manage this grant and oversee all phases of work under this grant. Or describe the system(s) you have in place to hire the requisite expertise.

2. Describe your history of managing federal funds. 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.

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

4. If you are, or have been, a recipient of an EPA Brownfields cooperative agreement(s), indicate the year of award and the amount of funds remaining.

5. If you are, or have been, a recipient of an EPA Brownfields cooperative agreement(s), highlight significant accomplishments generated through the use of the funds.

NOTES

¹ The authority to provide grants in the Brownfields Law is codified at §104(k) of CERCLA.

² The Consolidated Appropriations Act for FY 2004 allowed EPA to award brownfield assessment, revolving loan fund, and cleanup grants or loans to applicants that were otherwise eligible for a grant or loan and met all of the elements of a bona fide prospective purchaser except for the fact that the applicant had acquired the subject property prior to the enactment of the Brownfields Law on January 11, 2002. This change was only for one year (FY2004). Action to appropriate funds for FY2005 is pending.

³ Applicants for an RLF grant may use fees from borrowers, interest on loans, 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. Recipients of RLF grants may not use repayments of loan principal to meet the cost share requirement.

⁴ RLF cooperative agreement recipients must take these into consideration when awarding a subgrant.

⁵ 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.

⁶ Note, cooperative agreement recipients cannot award subgrants to for-profit organizations.