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EPA Selects Lakewood Township in New Jersey for $200,000 Brownfields Development Grant

Release Date: 05/20/2002
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(#02040) New York, New York -- The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has selected the Township of Lakewood, about 30 miles east of Trenton, to receive a $200,000 grant to identify and assess contaminated sites that it can clean up and redevelop. EPA Administrator Christie Whitman today announced the brownfields grant to Lakewood, along with seventeen other new recipients of Brownfields Assessment Demonstration Pilots across the country. Lakewood can use the new funds for brownfields site assessments and to develop public outreach for community involvement in the brownfields process. The money will be awarded after EPA and the recipients work out the terms of the grant agreements, a process that should be completed in a few months. EPA supports communities across the country through its Brownfields Economic Redevelopment Initiative - a national effort to renew industrial and commercial properties at which expansion or redevelopment is complicated by real or perceived environmental contamination. The Agency has invested over $5.5 million dollars through the national program to assist in the redevelopment of New Jersey’ ;s brownfields over the past five years. “EPA support of brownfields redevelopment in New Jersey has provided a variety of benefits that have already improved the environment and local economies,” EPA Regional Administrator Jane M. Kenny said. “The common denominator for success has been strong partnerships with all levels of government, the community and the private sector,” Ms. Kenny added. “ ;We welcome Lakewood as our new brownfields community partner.” Lakewood is one of 21 recipients of brownfields pilot projects awarded funding in New Jersey. Others include Atlantic City, Camden, Elizabeth, Essex County, Gloucester, Hudson County, Jersey City, Long Branch, Middlesex County, Morris County, Newark, New Jersey Meadlowlands District, Orange, Paterson, Pennsauken, Perth Amboy, Phillipsburg, Trenton and Union County. Call Rich Cahill (212) 637-3666 for a fact sheet with more details on the Lakewood grant.