Brownfields Assessment Grants
Assessment Grants provide funding for a grant recipient to inventory, characterize, assess, conduct a range of planning activities, develop site-specific cleanup plans, and conduct community engagement related to brownfield sites.
Community-wide Assessment Grants
- A Community-wide Assessment Grant is appropriate for communities that are beginning to address their brownfield challenges, as well as for communities that have ongoing efforts to bring sites into productive reuse.
- An applicant may request up to $500,000 to assess sites contaminated by hazardous substances, pollutants, contaminants (including hazardous substances co-mingled with petroleum), and/or petroleum.
- The performance period for these grants is up to four years.
- Current EPA Brownfields Assessment Grant recipients and Multipurpose Grant recipients must demonstrate that payment has been received from EPA (also known as ‘drawn down’), and drawn down funds have been disbursed, for at least 70.00% of each Assessment and Multipurpose cooperative agreement they have with EPA by October 1, 2022, in order to apply for an FY23 Community-wide Assessment Grant.
Site-specific Assessment Grants
EPA will not solicit requests for new Site-specific Assessment Grants in the FY23 grant competition. Entities interested in applying for a Site-specific Assessment Grant should consider applying for an FY 2023 Community-wide Assessment Grant.
Assessment Coalition Grants
- Assessment Coalitions are designed for one “lead” eligible entity to partner with two to four eligible entities that do not have the capacity to apply for and manage their own EPA cooperative agreement and otherwise would not have access to Brownfields Grant resources. Additionally, EPA strongly encourages coalitions to include eligible community-based nonprofit organizations as non-lead members to help promote strong local engagement and to ensure the community’s concerns and vision for revitalization are incorporated into the project.
- The lead entity of the coalition must be a state, county government, Indian tribe other than in Alaska, an Alaska Native Regional Corporation, an Alaska Native Village Corporation, the Metlakatla Indian community, regional council established under a governmental authority (e.g., regional planning commissions), or a group of general purpose units of local government established under Federal, state or local law (e.g., councils of governments) to function as a single legal entity with authority to enter into binding agreements with the Federal Government.
- An applicant may request up to $1,000,000 to assess sites contaminated by hazardous substances, pollutants, contaminants (including hazardous substances co-mingled with petroleum), and/or petroleum.
- The performance period for these grants is up to four years.
- Current EPA Brownfields Assessment Grant and Multipurpose Grant recipients must demonstrate that payment has been received from EPA (also known as ‘drawn down’), and drawn down funds have been disbursed, for at least 70.00% of each Assessment and Multipurpose cooperative agreement they have with EPA by October 1, 2022, in order to apply for an FY23 Assessment Coalition Grant.
Review additional updates for the FY 2023 competition outlined on the Brownfields Policy Changes webpage.
Community-wide Assessment Grants for States and Tribes
- This funding is only available to states, tribes, and eligible native corporations in Alaska to address brownfield sites throughout their entire jurisdiction.
- An applicant may request up to $2,000,000 to assess sites contaminated by hazardous substances, pollutants, contaminants (including hazardous substances co-mingled with petroleum), and/or petroleum.
- The performance period for these grants is up to five years.
- Entities that were awarded an FY22 Community-wide Assessment Grant for States and Tribes are not eligible to apply for Assessment Grant funding in FY23.
- Other current EPA Brownfields Assessment Grant recipients DO NOT have to demonstrate that payment has been received from EPA for at least 70.00% of each Assessment cooperative agreement they have with EPA by October 1, 2022, in order to apply for this funding.
These changes are also outlined on the Brownfields Policy Changes webpage.
Grant Application Resources
- List of Entities Eligible to Apply for Assessment Grants
- FY 2023 Assessment Grant Application Resources
- Grant Application Resources from Prior Years
- Interested in applying for Funding? (Assessment Grant Fact Sheet)
- Renewable Energy or Energy-Efficient Approaches in Brownfields Redevelopment
- Socially Distant Engagement Ideas
Assessment Grant Recipient Resources
- Frequently Asked Questions
- Programmatic Requirements
- Information on Sites Eligible for Brownfields Funding under CERCLA§ 104(k)
- Information on Defenses to CERCLA Liability
- Information on Eligible Planning Activities
- Brownfields Grant Reporting/Assessment, Cleanup and Redevelopment Exchange System (ACRES)