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EPA Presents Hudson County With $500,000 Check For National Brownfields Redevelopment

Release Date: 08/31/1999
Contact Information: Richard Cahill (212) 637-3666 / [email protected]

(#99144) New York, N.Y. -- At a ceremony today to celebrate the model partnerships behind Hudson County's successful brownfields redevelopment efforts, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) presented the county with a symbolic check for a $500,000 Brownfields Cleanup Revolving Loan Fund. EPA supports communities across the country through its Brownfields Economic Redevelopment Initiative - a national effort to renew industrial and commercial properties where expansion or redevelopment is complicated by real or perceived environmental contamination.

Hudson County will use the Brownfields Cleanup Revolving Loan Fund to leverage additional financing for brownfields redevelopment from various state and federal sources. The County is developing an inventory of its priority brownfields sites and targeting sites with active reuse potential for assessment and cleanup. Public outreach is also underway to involve communities in this process.

EPA Regional Administrator Jeanne M. Fox joined state and local officials in Harrison today at a former gas station and auto repair shop with brownfields potential to present Hudson County Executive Robert C. Janiszewski with the symbolic check. "EPA has invested in Hudson County because brownfields redevelopment provides a variety of benefits that improve our environment and our economy, and it works," said Jeanne M. Fox, EPA Region 2 Administrator. "The momentum of this effort is gearing up thanks to the coordination of resources through a partnership of EPA, the county, other federal agencies, like HUD and EDA, and the state, " added Ms. Fox.

With the decline in manufacturing in America, Hudson County was particularly hard hit. Since the 1980's alone, manufacturing jobs in the county have declined by 47%. This decline has left the county with about 650 brownfield sites, an average of 14 per square mile.

In 1998, EPA awarded Hudson County a $200,000 grant for a pilot project that targeted four county municipalities -- Harrison, Hoboken, Kearny and North Bergen. Combined with the brownfields grant awarded to Jersey City in 1997 and the award being presented today, EPA has contributed $900,000 to support Hudson County's brownfields redevelopment efforts.

Hudson County is one of 15 brownfields pilot projects awarded funding in New Jersey. Others include Trenton, Camden, Newark, Perth Amboy, Jersey City, Elizabeth, Atlantic City, Long Branch, Paterson, Middlesex and Morris Counties, Orange, Phillipsburg and the Hackensack Meadowlands District. And the county is one of only two recipients in New Jersey of a Revolving Loan Fund grant, the other being Trenton. Over the past six years, these grants represent an investment of over four million dollars to assist in the redevelopment of New Jersey's brownfields.

For more information contact:
Richard Cahill, Press Office
EPA Region 2
290 Broadway
NY, NY 10007-1866
Voice: 212-637-3666 FAX: 212-637-5046 E-Mail: [email protected]