Administrator Pruitt Announces $295,500 in Brownfields Grants to Pittsburg, Kan., to Help Return Properties to Productive Reuse, Promote Economic Redevelopment

LENEXA, Kansas, April 25 -- The Environmental Protection Agency issued the following news release:

EPA has selected 144 communities for Brownfields environmental Assessment, Revolving Loan Fund, and Cleanup (ARC) grants. The 221 grants totaling $54.3 million will provide communities with funding to assess, clean up, and redevelop underutilized properties while protecting public health and the environment.

As part of today's announcement, the city of Pittsburg, Kansas, will receive $295,500 in Brownfields assessment grants. The grant funds will be used to conduct 11 environmental site assessments, and develop 11 cleanup plans. The funds will also be used to conduct stakeholder and community meetings to engage the surrounding community about the project. Assessment activities will focus on sites located in the city's Mid-City Renaissance Area.

"EPA's Brownfields Program expands the ability of communities to recycle vacant and abandoned properties for new, productive reuses, using existing infrastructure," said EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt. "These grants leverage other public and private investments, and improve local economies through property cleanup and redevelopment."

"The EPA, particularly the Brownfields Program, has been essential to our redevelopment efforts," said Pittsburg Deputy City Manager Jay Byers. "Many of these properties have languished for generations without investment interest, representing health threats and economic blight, but the EPA has given us the resources to provide investors economically viable options for the properties and a clear path for bringing them back into productive reuse. The work we have done has already started attracting interest."

"We congratulate the city of Pittsburg and applaud their continued commitment to the cleanup and redevelopment of brownfield properties throughout their community," said EPA Region 7 Administrator Jim Gulliford. "We're proud to support this cleanup effort and look forward to positive environmental and economic impacts to come."

The Brownfields Program targets communities that are economically disadvantaged and provides funding and assistance to transform blighted sites into assets that can generate jobs and spur economic growth. A study analyzing 48 brownfields sites found that an estimated $29 million 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 these brownfield sites. Furthermore, another study found that property values of homes located near brownfields sites that are cleaned up increased between 5 and 15 percent after cleanup.

In addition, communities can use Brownfields funding to leverage water infrastructure loans and other financial resources. For example, EPA's Clean Water State Revolving Fund and Drinking Water State Revolving Fund can be used, under certain conditions, to address the water quality aspects of brownfield sites and the assessment and construction of drinking water infrastructure on brownfields, respectively. EPA's Water Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act program may also serve as a potential source of long-term, low-cost supplemental financing to fund brownfields project development and implementation activities to address water quality aspects of brownfields.

See the list of the fiscal year 2018 applicants selected for funding

Learn more about the ARC grants

Learn more about EPA's Brownfields Program

Learn more about how Brownfields restoration has positively impacted local economies and the quality of life for neighboring communities