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News Releases from Region 07

Cities and Groups in Iowa and Missouri to Receive $1.8 Million for Assessments and Cleanups of Brownfield Properties

05/20/2016
Contact Information: 
Chris Whitley (whitley.christopher@epa.gov)
913-551-7394

Environmental News

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

(Lenexa, Kan., May 20, 2016) - Six cities or groups in Iowa and Missouri have been selected to receive a total of $1.8 million in funding from EPA’s Brownfields Program to conduct environmental assessments or cleanups of vacant or abandoned properties so they can be returned to new and productive uses.

The six grants to successful applicants in EPA Region 7 are part of a $55.2 million national package of financial assistance announced today by EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy. The funds come through cooperative agreements with EPA’s Assessment, Revolving Loan Fund and Cleanup (ARC) grants program, part of the agency’s Brownfields Program:

Burlington, Iowa – The city will receive a total of $400,000 in community-wide assessment funds, including $200,000 for assessment of petroleum contamination and $200,000 for assessment of hazardous waste, focused on redeveloping the city’s downtown district.

Dubuque, Iowa – The city will receive a $200,000 cleanup grant to address the Blum property, a former scrap yard located in the city’s Washington neighborhood. A proposed use of the property is to provide recreational park space and connectivity to the national Mississippi River Trail.

East Central Intergovernmental Association, Dubuque, Iowa – The nonprofit association will receive a total of $600,000 in assessment coalition funding, including $350,000 for assessment of hazardous waste and $250,000 for assessment of petroleum contamination. The funding will help establish a brownfields program for 66 small rural communities in five Iowa counties: Cedar, Clinton, Delaware, Dubuque and Jackson.

Hardesty Renaissance Economic Development Corporation, Kansas City, Mo. – The development corporation will receive a $200,000 cleanup grant to address the former Hardesty Federal Complex. The goal of the project is to establish a neighborhood food hub for local produce and create jobs in an economically impacted urban area.

North Central Missouri Regional Water Commission, Milan, Mo. – The commission will receive a $92,000 cleanup grant to address hazardous material contamination in structures prior to their demolition and inundation by the planned East Locust Creek Reservoir project. The construction of this water reservoir will have positive impact on 10 counties in north central Missouri: Adair, Chariton, Grundy, Linn, Livingston, Macon, Mercer, Putnam, Schuyler, and Sullivan.

Waterloo, Iowa – The city will receive a total of $400,000 in community-wide assessment funds, including $200,000 for assessment of petroleum contamination and $200,000 for assessment of hazardous waste, focused on vacant or abandoned industrial properties in the urban core and along the Broadway Street corridor.

These investments will provide communities with the resources to assess, clean up and redevelop contaminated properties, boost local economies and leverage jobs while protecting the environment. Brownfields ARC grants provide key assistance in the early phases of brownfield redevelopment projects, which is typically vital to their ability to leverage additional partnerships and resources.

There are an estimated 450,000 abandoned and contaminated waste sites in America. Since the inception of the EPA’s Brownfields Program in 1995, cumulative brownfields program investments have leveraged more than $20 billion from a variety of public and private sources for cleanup and redevelopment activities. This equates to an average of $17.79 leveraged per EPA brownfields dollar expended. These investments have resulted in approximately 108,924 jobs nationwide. EPA’s Brownfields Program empowers states, communities and other stakeholders to work together to prevent, assess, safely clean up, and sustainably reuse brownfields sites.

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