News Releases

News Releases from Region 06

City of Tulsa Receives $300,000 EPA Grant to Help Clean Up Contaminated Properties

Part of $10.7 million awarded nationwide

07/12/2016
Contact Information: 
Jennah Durant or Joe Hubbard (R6Press@epa.gov)
214 665-2200

DALLAS – (July 12, 2016) Today, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced the city of Tulsa, Okla., will receive $300,000 in supplemental funding to help clean up contaminated properties. This amount is part of about $10.7 million given nationwide to help transform communities by cleaning up contaminated brownfield properties.

“Tulsa is a nationwide leader in revitalizing neighborhoods by leveraging EPA brownfields grants to clean up abandoned, contaminated properties,” said Regional Administrator Ron Curry. “From the BOK Center to the Mayo Hotel, Tulsa has shown that environmental protection and economic development can go hand-in-hand.”

EPA plans to provide supplemental funding to 33 successful Revolving Loan Fund (RLF) grantees, helping more than 40 communities carry out cleanup and redevelopment projects. These projects will help communities create jobs while protecting people’s health and the environment. RLFs supply funding for loans and sub-grants to carry out cleanup activities at brownfield sites.

The supplemental funding to each grantee ranges from about $200,000 to $500,000, and help maintain momentum so that more cleanups can be completed. These funds are provided to communities such as Tulsa that have already succeeded in cleaning up and redeveloping brownfield sites. Collectively, these communities have already leveraged more than $600 million in cleanup and redevelopment investments. To date, the RLF grantees receiving supplemental funds have completed over 66 cleanups and provided more than 300 loans and sub-grants.

There are about 450,000 abandoned and contaminated sites in the U.S. Since the inception of EPA’s Brownfields program in 1995, cumulative investments have leveraged nearly $21 billion from a variety of public and private sources for cleanup and redevelopment activities. These investments have resulted in nearly 109,000 jobs nationwide. A recent study shows that residential property values increased 5-15 percent near brownfield sites when cleanups were completed. Preliminary analysis of 48 brownfield sites shows that an estimated $29 to $97 million in additional tax revenue was generated for local governments in a single year after cleanup. This is two to seven times more than the $12.4 million EPA contributed to the cleanup of those sites.

More information on Revolving Loan Fund (RLF) grantees: /sites/production/files/2016-07/documents/fy16_rlf_supplemental_funding_list.pdf 

More information on EPA’s Brownfields program: http://www.epa.gov/brownfields
 

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