EPA presents Pioneer Bay Community Development Corporation with funding to assist in cleanup and assessments
The community of Port Saint Joe, Fla. will receive more than $850,000 in Brownfield Assessment and Cleanup support to help the local economy while addressing environmental justice concerns
ATLANTA (May 23, 2022) — Today, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Region 4 Administrator Daniel Blackman presented the Pioneer Bay Community Development Corporation with Brownfield program and environmental justice collaborative problem-solving grants to help advance environmental justice, spur economic revitalization, and create jobs by addressing contaminated, polluted, or hazardous brownfield properties in the Port St. Joe community.
The Brownfields Program advances President Biden’s Justice40 Initiative, which aims to deliver at least 40 percent of the benefits of certain government programs to disadvantaged communities. Approximately 86 percent of the communities selected to receive funding as part of today’s announcement have proposed projects in historically underserved areas.
“Brownfields investments provide critical funding to empower communities such as Port Saint Joe to address and reverse the effects of economic stress, particularly in areas that have experienced disinvestment and decay,” said EPA Region 4 Administrator Daniel Blackman. “This funding will help communities in need transform contaminated sites into community assets, create jobs, jumpstart economic development and protect citizen’s health and the environment.”
“We are happy that our city got money that could have gone to many other cities,” said Port St. Joe Mayor Rex Buzzett. “We got it because of the hard work of Pioneer Bay. That’s a huge improvement for our city and area and what its going to mean for our future.”
"The EPA Brownfields Job Training Grant is a wonderful opportunity to provide much needed environmental job skill training and focused workforce credentials in which careers are built and lives are changed for local underrepresented individuals,” said Dr. Krystal Hepburn, Program Director for the Pioneer Bay Community Development Brownfields Job Training Grant. “Additionally, this grant serves as a vehicle to positively transform the community, establish a pathway for Environmental Justice leaders of tomorrow, and provide a great start for capacity building that the community needs for long-awaited restoration and growth."
Brownfield projects can range from cleaning up buildings with asbestos or lead contamination, to assessing and cleaning up abandoned properties that once managed dangerous chemicals. Once cleaned up, former brownfield properties can be redeveloped into productive uses such as grocery stores, affordable housing, health centers, museums, parks, and solar farms.
The Environmental Justice Collaborative Problem-Solving (EJCPS) Cooperative Agreement Program provides financial assistance to eligible organizations working on or planning to work on projects to address local environmental and/or public health issues in their communities. The program assists recipients in building collaborative partnerships with other stakeholders (e.g., local businesses and industry, local government, medical service providers, academia, etc.) to develop solutions that will significantly address environmental and/or public health issue(s) at the local level.
Additionally, the EJCPS Program requires selected applicants, or recipients, to use the EPA’s Environmental Justice Collaborative Problem-Solving Model as part of their projects. The model aims to address local environmental and/or public health issues in a collaborative manner with various stakeholders such as communities, industry, academic institutions, and others.
EPA’s Brownfields grants and other technical assistance programs like the RE-Powering America’s Land Initiative are also helping to build the clean energy economy.
Since its inception in 1995, EPA’s investments in brownfield sites have leveraged more than $35 billion in cleanup and redevelopment. This has led to significant benefits for communities across the country. For example:
- To date, this funding has led to more than 183,000 jobs in cleanup, construction, and redevelopment and more than 9,500 properties have been made ready for reuse.
- Based on grant recipient reporting, recipients leveraged on average $20.43 for each EPA Brownfields dollar and 10.3 jobs per $100,000 of EPA Brownfield Grant funds expended on assessment, cleanup, and revolving loan fund cooperative agreements.
- In addition, an academic peer-reviewed study has found that residential properties near brownfield sites increased in value by 5% to 15% as a result of cleanup activities.
- Finally, analyzing data near 48 brownfields, EPA found an estimated $29 million to $97 million in additional tax revenue for local governments in a single year after cleanup—2 to 7 times more than the $12.4 million EPA contributed to the cleanup of those brownfield sites.
Additional Background
A brownfield is a property for which the expansion, redevelopment, or reuse may be complicated by the presence or potential presence of a hazardous substance, pollutant, or contaminant. Redevelopment made possible through the program includes everything from grocery stores and affordable housing to health centers, museums, greenways, and solar farms.
The next National Brownfields Training Conference will be held on August 16-19, 2022, in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. Offered every two years, this conference is the largest gathering of stakeholders focused on cleaning up and reusing former commercial and industrial properties. EPA co-sponsors this event with the International City/County Management Association (ICMA). Conference registration is open at www.brownfields2022.org.
For more on Brownfields Grants: https://www.epa.gov/brownfields/types-brownfields-grant-funding
For more on EPA’s Brownfields Program: https://www.epa.gov/brownfields