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Brownfields Grant for Ketchikan, AK

Release Date: 5/13/1997
Contact Information: Lori Cohen
[email protected]
(206) 553-6523

97-34.....................May 13, 1997

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

The Borough of Ketchikan has been selected to receive a $200,000 national
Brownfields re-development grant from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The grant -- announced today at a White House ceremony in Washington, D.C. -- is expected to help Ketchikan’s community clean-up and revitalization effort, as well as create more family-wage jobs over the next decade.

Following the national awards ceremony, the grant was announced locally today by EPA Regional Administrator Chuck Clarke and Jack Shay, Mayor of Ketchikan Gateway Borough.

Brownfields grants are good for the environment and good for the local economy, said Chuck Clarke.  By cleaning-up industrial property and returning it to productive use, Ketchikan will move toward a more sustainable economic base.

This grant is another step in our economic recovery, said Mayor Shay. We’d like to express our heartfelt thanks to the EPA and our hard-working staff here at the Borough for their dedicated effort to speed up the re-use of the Ward Cove site. We’re committed to being the architects of tomorrow, rather than the victims of today.

According to Borough officials the primary objectives of the Ketchikan project  are:

1. To help maintain a sustainable industrial employment base and avoid the pitfalls of a cyclical and seasonal economy.
2. To help workers employed at the Ward Cove Pulp Mill find other employment in Ketchikan Gateway Borough; and
3. To maintain a tax base for the borough that will help provide necessary social services for displaced workers.

In addition to the Brownfields Pilot grant, EPA is also working in cooperation with Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation(ADEC) to craft an agreement covering the long-term investigation and cleanup of the former Ketchikan Pulp Mill site.