EPA awards $300K for brownfields work

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency recently selected the city of Atlanta to receive a brownfields revolving loan fund grant totaling $300,000. This is in addition to the more than $1.7 million in grant funding for communitywide brownfields assessment activities and cleanup planning that seven communities in Georgia were selected to receive May 31.

Nationally, EPA selected 11 existing Brownfields Revolving Loan Fund recipients to receive a total of approximately $5.35 million in supplemental funding. The additional support will help the entities continue their work cleaning up contaminated brownfield properties.

“The City of Atlanta’s RLF Program is of vital importance to both nonprofits and for profits with limited resources for brownfield cleanup, a vital step in the reuse and redevelopment of brownfield properties. A perennial reminder of the importance of the city’s RLF Program is the cleanup and redevelopment of the Eastside Trail of the Atlanta Beltline,” said Georgia Environmental Protection Division Brownfields Coordinator Shannon Ridley. “The supplemental funds awarded to the city will greatly help other eligible entities to cleanup brownfields to make them safe for reuse.”

The Brownfields RLF program supports EPA’s commitment to help environmentally overburdened communities address their local 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.

On average, for every one EPA Brownfields dollar provided, $16.11 was leveraged. As for employment, on average, 8.5 jobs were leveraged per $100,000 of EPA brownfields funds expended on assessment, cleanup and revolving loan fund cooperative agreements.

For more information on EPA’s brownfields program: epa.gov/ brownfields