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U.S. EPA SELECTS CITY OF LAS VEGAS FOR BROWNFIELDS PROJECT

Release Date: 5/6/1998
Contact Information: Lois Grunwald, U.S. EPA, (415) 744-1588

     (San Francisco) -- The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (U.S. EPA) today announced that it has selected the city of Las Vegas to participate in a pilot redevelopment project at former industrial and commercial sites known as brownfields. Las Vegas is one of 36 cities and municipalities nationwide that were selected today as brownfields pilot projects.
       
      "Our new partnership with the city of Las Vegas will bring together people who will work to clean up land and help create new, vital areas," said Felicia Marcus, U.S. EPA's regional administrator. "Environmental cleanup can bring life and strength to a community through jobs, an enhanced tax base, and a vision for the community's future. We look forward to helping the city of Las Vegas achieve that vision."
 
      The city of Las Vegas will receive a $200,000 grant over a two-year period. These funds will be used to involve the community in decisions about cleanup and future uses of the brownfields' properties, and assess and test a large number of  sites in the city's downtown area to lay the groundwork for redevelopment. At one time, these properties contained warehouses, distributors, and equipment yards, but they have since been vacated or abandoned and expansion moved to larger sites south of the city limits. Sites that are contaminated or near such sites will be the first to be assessed by the city.
     In Region 9, U.S. EPA currently has existing brownfields pilot projects in Sacramento, Stockton, Emeryville, Richmond, San Francisco, Oakland, Navajo Nation in New Mexico, Tucson, Santa Barbara, Phoenix, Pomona, San Diego, and East Palo Alto. U.S. EPA is also providing assistance to the city of Los Angeles for brownfields redevelopment. With the 36 new projects, there are now 157 brownfields pilot projects nationwide.

     The brownfields initiative was launched to empower states, local governments, and other stakeholders in economic redevelopment to work together to assess, clean up, and sustainably reuse the brownfields properties. The initiative also addresses the concerns of prospective developers and lenders concerned about inheriting cleanup liability for property that is contaminated or perceived to be contaminated.

     Information on the new brownfields pilot grant awards can be obtained from the U.S. EPA's brownfields home page on the Internet at: https://www.epa.gov/brownfields .