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EPA awards $796,344 in Brownfields grants to Hawai'i

Release Date: 6/15/2004
Contact Information: Dean Higuchi, (808) 541-2711

HONOLULU -- Today the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency awarded $796,334 in grant funding throughout Hawai'i to redevelop Brownfield properties.

The EPA awarded grant funding to the Hawai'i Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism, the County of Kauai, and the Anahola Homesteaders Council on Kauai.

Nationally, today marks the largest Brownfields funding announcement in the agency's history. The EPA is awarding $75.4 million to 265 recipients nationwide.

"This grant will allow Hawai'i communities to continue their momentum in revitalizing properties that have been sitting idle due to real or even perceived contamination," said Wayne Nastri, administrator of the EPA's Pacific Southwest office. "The EPA's brownfields program allows cities and towns to turn what once were stumbling blocks into building blocks."

The grants were announced today by EPA Administrator Mike Leavitt at the site of a former metal foundry in Milwaukee. The abandoned site is being redeveloped as a light-industry business park.

"Brownfields sites like this are a blight on thousands of cities, towns and rural areas across the country," Leavitt said. "We're helping turn these eyesores into opportunities, bringing new life to communities and cities, everything from new jobs and new housing to new shopping opportunities and new recreational facilities."

The Hawai'i Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism received $400,000 and the County of Kauai, $200,000 to:

-inventory potential brownfields sites;
-perform environmental site assessments;
-produce clean up and redevelopment plans; and
-do community outreach and involvement activities.

The Anahola Homesteaders Council on Kauai received $196,334 for clean up of hazardous substances on 20-acres of former sugar cane land contaminated with pesticides and herbicides containing arsenic and mercuric compounds. The community plans to redevelop the site into a multi-use town center, with a charter school and affordable housing for elderly residents once clean up is done.

The Brownfields program encourages redevelopment of America's estimated 450,000 abandoned and contaminated waste sites. Since the beginning of the Brownfields program, the EPA has awarded 554 assessment grants totaling over $150 million, 171 revolving loan fund grants totaling over $145 million, and 66 cleanup grants totaling $11.4 million. The EPA's Brownfields assistance has leveraged more than $5.8 billion in private investment, helped create more than 27,000 jobs and resulted in the assessment of more than 4,500 properties.

For more information on the grant recipients, go to: https://www.epa.gov/brownfields
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