Courtesy of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced yesterday $2 million in grant awards from President Biden’s Investing in America agenda to expedite the assessment and cleanup of brownfield sites in Virginia while advancing environmental justice. These investments through EPA’s Brownfields Multipurpose, Assessment, and Cleanup (MAC) Grant Programs and Revolving Loan Fund (RLF) Grant Programs will help transform once-polluted, vacant, and abandoned properties into community assets, while helping to create good jobs and spur economic revitalization in overburdened communities.

EPA selected two communities in Virginia to receive competitive EPA Brownfields funding through the Multipurpose, Assessment, and Cleanup (MAC) Grant programs.

“President Biden sees contaminated sites and blighted areas as an opportunity to invest in healthier, revitalized communities,” said EPA Administrator Michael S. Regan. “That’s why he secured historic funding under the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, supercharging EPA’s Brownfields program to clean up contaminated properties in overburdened communities and bring them back into productive use.”

“Today’s announcement invests more than $26,000,000 across the mid-Atlantic to support the revitalization of brownfields,” said EPA Mid-Atlantic Regional Administrator Adam Ortiz. “This funding will help assess and cleanup contamination, create jobs by returning idle properties to productive reuse, and continue our progress toward a healthy and safe environment for all Americans.”

Many communities that are under economic stress, particularly those located in areas that have experienced long periods of disinvestment, lack the resources needed to initiate brownfield cleanup and redevelopment projects. As brownfield sites are transformed into community assets, they attract jobs, promote economic revitalization and transform communities into sustainable and environmentally just places.

Thanks to the historic $1.5 billion boost from President Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, EPA’s Brownfields Program is helping more communities than ever before begin to address the economic, social, and environmental challenges caused by brownfields and stimulate economic opportunity, and environmental revitalization in historically overburdened communities.

EPA’s Brownfields Program advances President Biden’s Justice40 Initiative which set a goal that 40% of the overall benefits of certain Federal investments flow to disadvantaged communities that are marginalized by underinvestment and overburdened by pollution. The Brownfields Program strives to meet this commitment and advance environmental justice and equity considerations in all aspects of its work. Approximately 86% of the MAC and RLF Supplemental program applications selected to receive funding proposed to work in areas that include disadvantaged communities.

Brownfields Multipurpose, Assessment, and Cleanup (MAC) Grant Program Selection

The following organizations in Virginia have been selected to receive EPA Brownfields funding through the Multipurpose, Assessment, and Cleanup (MAC) Grant Programs.

• Dublin, Virginia has been selected to receive $1 million. Funds will be used to conduct five Phase I and five Phase II environmental site assessments, and conduct community engagement, cleanup planning, and remediation activities at the Former Wastewater Treatment Plant, Mixed-Use District, Warehouse District, Future Use Area A, and Future Use Area B priority sites located within the Dublin Industrial Park at 600 Newbern Road.
• Dumfries, Virginia has been selected to receive $1 million. Funds will be used to conduct four Phase I and two Phase II environmental site assessments and conduct community engagement and reuse planning activities. Grant funds also will be used to clean up the 3800 Graham Park Road site and the Campbell Salvage Yard at 17926 Colonial Port Road.

Visit the EPA website for more information on the Brownfields Program.