Types of Funding
EPA’s Brownfields Program provides competitive funding for brownfield projects:
The program also provides non-competitive funding:
- To State and Tribal Response Programs.
- For recapitalization of existing revolving loan funds.
Assessment Grants
Assessment Grants provide funding for brownfield inventories, planning, environmental assessments and community outreach.
Community-wide Assessment Grants
- 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.
- Applicants may request up to $500,000 to assess sites contaminated by hazardous substances, pollutants, contaminants or petroleum.
- Performance period is up to 4 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, 2024, in order to apply for an FY25 Community-wide Assessment Grant.
Assessment Coalition Grants
- Designed for one “lead” entity to partner with two to four 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.
- The lead entity of the coalition must be one of the following:
- State
- County government
- Federally recognized Indian tribe other than in Alaska
- Alaska Native Regional Corporation
- Alaska Native Village Corporation
- Metlakatla Indian Community
- Regional council established under a governmental authority (e.g., regional planning commissions)
- Group of general purpose units of local government established under federal, state or local law (e.g., councils of governments)
- Must function as a single legal entity with the authority to enter into binding agreements with the Federal Government.
- Applicants may request up to $1,200,000 to assess sites contaminated by hazardous substances, pollutants, contaminants or petroleum.
- Performance period is up to 4 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, 2024, in order to apply for an FY25 Assessment Coalition Grant.
Community-wide Assessment Grants for States and Tribes
- Only available to states, Federally recognized Tribal Nations and eligible native corporations in Alaska to address brownfield sites in their jurisdiction.
- Applicants may request up to $2,000,000 to assess sites contaminated by hazardous substances, pollutants, contaminants or petroleum.
- Awards are funded under the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. Therefore, activities carried out at each approved, eligible site may exceed $200,000 per grant.
- Performance period is up to 5 years.
- Current EPA Brownfields CWAGST 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 60.00% of the CWAGST cooperative agreement they have with EPA by October 1, 2024, in order to apply for an FY25 CWAGST Grant.
Cleanup Grants
Cleanup Grants provide funding to carry out cleanup activities at brownfield sites owned by the applicant.
- Performance period is up to 4 years.
- Sites may not receive this funding more than once.
- Applicants may request up to $500,000, up to $2 million or up to $4 million to address one or more brownfield sites contaminated by hazardous substances, pollutants, contaminants or petroleum.
- Applicants may submit only one Cleanup Grant application each competition cycle.
Note: Brownfield sites where Brownfields Cleanup Grant funds were previously expended may not receive additional Cleanup Grant funding.
Site Characterization
In past competition cycles, applicants were required to obtain a letter from the State/Tribal Environmental Authority acknowledging the applicant’s intent to apply for Brownfields Grant funding. As of FY23, there is an additional requirement for Cleanup Grant applicants to demonstrate that the proposed site(s) has been sufficiently characterized for the cleanup to begin. EPA will categorize applicants in three buckets:
- If the applicant is a State or Tribal Environmental Authority, EPA will not require a letter, however, the applicant will be required to include a statement in response to the threshold criterion affirming that there is a sufficient level of site characterization from the environmental site assessment performed to date (or will be by June 15, 2025) for the remediation work to begin on the site(s).
- An applicant other than a State or Tribal Environmental Authority that is proposing a site(s) that is eligible to be enrolled in a voluntary response program, will be required to attach a current letter from the appropriate State or Tribal Environmental Authority (or equivalent state or Tribal regulatory oversight authority) that: (i) Affirms that the site(s) is eligible to be enrolled in the state or tribal voluntary response program; (ii) whether the site(s) is enrolled, or intends to be enrolled, in the state or tribal voluntary response program; and (ii) Indicates that there is a sufficient level of site characterization from the environmental site assessment performed to date (or will be by June 15, 2025) for the remediation work to begin on the site(s).
- For an applicant other than a State or Tribal Environmental Authority that is proposing a site(s) that is not eligible to be enrolled in a voluntary response program or State or Tribal equivalent oversight program (e.g., sites contaminated with hazardous building material) will be required to: (i) Attach a current letter from the appropriate State or Tribal Environmental Authority (or equivalent state or Tribal regulatory oversight authority) that explains why the site(s) is not eligible to be enrolled. (ii) State in response to the threshold criterion whether an Environmental Professional (as defined in 40 CFR 312.10) has certified that there is a sufficient level of site characterization from the environmental site assessment performed to date (or will be by June 15, 2025) for the remediation work to begin on the site(s).
EPA only needs one letter per applicant and the letter must be included with the application that is submitted by the deadline.
Statutory Cleanup Cost Share Requirement
- Grant recipients may be required to provide a 20 percent match in the form of a contribution of money, labor, materials or services for eligible activities. (Note: EPA has waived cost share requirements for ARC Grants in FY25 per the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.)
Multipurpose Grants
Multipurpose Grants are appropriate for communities that have identified through community engagement efforts a discrete area (such as a neighborhood, a number of neighboring towns, a district, a corridor, a shared planning area or a census tract) with one or more brownfield sites.
EPA will not issue a request for Multipurpose Grants in FY25.
- Target area may not include communities in distinctly different geographic areas.
- Applicants must own a site(s) that meets the CERCLA § 101(39) definition of a brownfield site within their target area where cleanup activities may be conducted.
- Applicants can apply for up to $1,000,000 and should demonstrate how grant funds will result in at least one of the following:
- Phase II environmental site assessment
- Site cleanup
- Overall revitalization that includes a feasible reuse plan for one site
- Eligibility determinations for site-specific assessment and cleanup activities will be made after award and throughout the project period.
- Grant recipients may be required to provide a $40,000 match in the form of a contribution of money, labor, materials or services for eligible costs. (Note: EPA has waived cost share requirements for MAC Grants in FY24 per the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.)
- Performance period is up to 5 years.
- Current EPA Brownfields Multipurpose Grant and Assessment 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 Multipurpose and Assessment cooperative agreement they have with EPA by October 1, 2023, in order to apply for an FY24 Multipurpose Grant.
Revolving Loan Fund (RLF) Grants
Revolving Loan Fund (RLF) Grants provide funding for a grant recipient to capitalize a revolving loan fund and to provide loans and subgrants to carry out cleanup activities at brownfield sites. Through these grants, EPA strengthens the marketplace and encourages stakeholders to leverage resources to clean up and redevelop brownfields. When loans are repaid, the loan amount is returned to the fund and re-lent to other borrowers, providing an ongoing source of capital within a community.
Job Training Grants
Job Training Grants provide funding to nonprofits, local governments, and other eligible organizations to provide environmental training for residents impacted by brownfield sites in their communities.
- Allows nonprofits, local governments and other organizations to recruit, train and place unemployed and underemployed residents of areas affected by the presence of brownfield sites.
- Graduates develop the skills needed to secure full-time, sustainable employment in various aspects of hazardous and solid waste management and within the larger environmental field, including sustainable cleanup and reuse and chemical safety.
Technical Assistance
EPA provides funding to organizations to provide training and technical assistance to communities to help address their brownfield challenges.
State and Tribal Response Program Funding
EPA’s Section 128(a) State and Tribal Response Program empowers states, Tribal Nations, communities and other stakeholders to build strong partnerships and local capacity to prevent, assess, safely clean up and sustainably reuse brownfields.