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News Releases from Region 05

EPA provides Rockford with $500,000 to fund brownfield cleanups

06/07/2018
Contact Information: 
Francisco Arcaute (arcaute.francisco@epa.gov)
312-886-7613 312-898-2042 Cell

For Immediate Release   No. 18-OPA24

CHICAGO (June 7, 2018) - U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced today that the City of Rockford, Ill., will receive $500,000 for its program to clean up contaminated brownfield properties. Across the country, EPA plans to provide supplemental funding totaling about $15.7 million to 33 successful, existing Revolving Loan Fund (RLF) grantees, helping communities carry out cleanup and redevelopment projects.

“These supplemental funds provide communities with the resources they need to continue to clean up contaminated lands, which will improve public health and generate economic growth,” said EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt. “These funds will ensure more cleanups are completed and more land can be returned to beneficial reuse.”

“Congratulations to the City of Rockford and keep up the good work,” said Regional Administrator Cathy Stepp.  “Federal funding for brownfield programs is further proof of EPA’s commitment to working with states and local communities to identify, clean up and get sites ready for productive reuse.”   

The Brownfields RLF program supports EPA’s commitment to assist communities in addressing environmentally challenged properties and meet their local revitalization priorities. The supplemental funds announced today will help communities reuse vacant and abandoned properties and turn them into community assets such as housing, recreation and open space, health facilities, social services, transportation options, infrastructure and commerce opportunities.

RLFs specifically supply funding for loans and sub-grants to carry out cleanup activities at brownfield sites. The supplemental funding to each grantee ranges from about $200,000 to $500,000. These funds are provided to communities who have shown achieved success in their work to clean up and redevelop brownfield sites.

A recent national study shows that cleaning up brownfields leads to residential property value increases of 5 - 15.2 percent within a 1.24-mile radius of the site. (Haninger et al. 2017). Another study analyzing data near 48 brownfields found that an estimated $29 to $97 million in additional tax revenue is generated for local governments in a single year after cleanup. This is two to seven times more than the $12.4 million EPA contributed to the cleanup of those brownfields.

More information on EPA’s Brownfields program is available at: http://www.epa.gov/brownfields or https://www.epa.gov/brownfields/announcing-fy18-supplemental-funding-brownfields-revolving-loan-fund-grants

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