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EPA Announces $400,000 for Brownfields Projects in New York

Release Date: 05/08/2009
Contact Information: Mary Mears (212) 637-3673, [email protected]

(New York, N.Y.) Two communities in New York will share an estimated $400,000 to help assess, cleanup and revitalize former industrial and commercial sites, turning them from problem properties to productive community use. The two $200,000 grants, to be awarded by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency are from the EPA brownfields general program funding.

“Cleaning and reusing contaminated properties provides the catalyst to improving the lives of residents living in or near brownfields communities in New York,” said EPA Acting Regional Administrator George Pavlou, “By revitalizing these sites, we will reduce threats to human health and the environment, create green jobs, promote community involvement, and attract investment in local neighborhoods.”

Applicants selected to receive brownfields general program funds are:

Glen Falls, NY
$200,000 to assess site with hazardous substances

EPA has selected the City of Glens Falls for a brownfields assessment grant. Community-wide hazardous substances grant funds will be used to evaluate an inventory of over 1,000 potential brownfield sites, and conduct at least 12 Phase I and 5 Phase II environmental site assessments in the South Street Corridor. Grant funds also will be used to conduct cleanup planning and support community outreach activities.

Rochester, NY
$200,000 to cleanup sites with hazardous substances

EPA has selected the City of Rochester for a brownfields cleanup grant. Hazardous substances grant funds will be used to clean up the 3.9-acre Orchard Whitney site at 354 Whitney Street and 415 Orchard Street. The site has been used for various commercial and industrial purposes since the early 1900s, including tool and die shops, plastics manufacturing, and metal finishing. Site soil and groundwater are contaminated with volatile and semi-volatile organic compounds and heavy metals. Grant funds also will be used to support community outreach and enforce institutional controls.

The grants will help to assess, clean and redevelop abandoned, contaminated properties known as brownfields. Brownfields are sites where expansion, redevelopment, or reuse may be complicated by the presence or potential presence of a hazardous substance, pollutant, or contaminant. In addition, the Small Business Liability Relief and Brownfields Revitalization Act of 2002 expanded the definition of a brownfield to include mine-scarred lands or sites contaminated by petroleum or the manufacture of illegal drugs. Grant recipients are selected through a national competition.

The Brownfields Program encourages cleanup and redevelopment of America’s estimated 450,000 brownfields sites. Since the beginning of the Brownfields Program, EPA has awarded 1449 assessment grants totaling over $337.3 million, 242 revolving loan fund grants totaling over $233.4 million, and 534 cleanup grants totaling $93.3 million.

Information on the national EPA Brownfields Program, including brownfields activities under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, is also available at https://www.epa.gov/brownfields/.

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