Today, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced $5,966,135 to West Virginia from President Biden’s Investing in America Agenda to expedite the assessment and cleanup of brownfield sites in West Virginia while advancing environmental justice.

EPA made 9 selections in West Virginia for grants totaling more than $5 million in competitive EPA Brownfields funding through the Multipurpose, Assessment, Revolving Loan Fund, and Cleanup (MARC) Grant programs. Another $1million in non-competitive supplemental funding will go to West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection for its existing Revolving Loan Fund (RLF) Grant program.  Thanks to the historic boost from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, this is the largest ever funding awarded in the history of the EPA’s Brownfields MARC Grant programs.

These investments are  part of President Biden’s Investing in America Agenda to grow the American economy from the bottom up and middle-out – from rebuilding our nation’s infrastructure, to driving over $470 billion in private sector manufacturing and clean energy investments in the United States, to creating a manufacturing and innovation boom powered by good paying jobs that don’t require a four-year degree, to building a clean-energy economy that will combat climate change and make our communities more resilient.

“We’re working across the country to revitalize what were once dangerous and polluted sites in overburdened communities into more sustainable and environmentally just places that serve as community assets. Thanks to President Biden’s historic investments in America, we’re moving further and faster than ever before to clean up contaminated sites, spur economic redevelopment, and deliver relief that so many communities have been waiting for,” said EPA Administrator Michael S. Regan. “This critical wave of investments is the largest in Brownfields history and will accelerate our work to protect the people and the planet by transforming what was once blight into might.”

“This unprecedented Brownfields funding going to West Virginia underscores EPA’s commitment to addressing the immediate needs of coal mining and power plant communities in Appalachia,” said EPA Regional Administrator Adam Ortiz. “I’ve visited West Virginia plenty of times and have seen how past brownfields funding has revitalized communities.  It’s clear to me that this new funding will help more communities rebuild and become healthy, economically-thriving places again.” 

“Addressing and restoring Brownfields sites across West Virginia is vital to strengthening our communities and boosting economic development,” said Senator Joe Manchin (D- WV).  “Our Bipartisan Infrastructure Law continues to deliver critical investments for West Virginia, and I am pleased the EPA is investing in these ten important programs. As a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, I will continue advocating for resources to protect the health and wellbeing of West Virginians across the Mountain State.”

“In almost every corner of our state, brownfield sites present potential opportunities for economic growth and expansion,” EPW Committee Ranking Member Shelley Moore Capito said. “When crafting the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, I helped prioritize funding to deliver needed resources to the EPA’s Brownfields Program that would benefit communities in West Virginia, and I’m looking forward to seeing the funding announced today create more success stories across our state.”

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 also advances President Biden’s Justice40 Initiative to direct 40 percent of the overall benefits of certain Federal investments to disadvantaged communities. The Brownfields Program strives to meet this commitment and advance environmental justice and equity considerations into all aspects of its work. Approximately 84 percent of the MARC program applications selected to receive funding proposed to work in areas that include historically underserved communities.

Two of the nine organizations in West Virginia selected to receive EPA Brownfields funding through the MARC Grant programs are:

• Region 2 Planning and Development Council has been selected to receive $500,000. Communitywide grant funds will be used to conduct 25 Phase I and 12 Phase II environmental site assessments. Grant funds also will be used to prepare 10 cleanup plans and to conduct community engagement activities including 12 steering committee meetings. The target areas for this grant are Logan and Mingo Counties. Priority sites include former surface mines, a former floor manufacturing plant that includes a main building, vacant warehouse space, the former Gilbert High School, and the former Matewan High School, which closed in 2012 and has been vacant since.
• Marshall University Research Corporation has been selected to receive $968,438. Grant funds will be used to clean up the 7.8-acre Former Flint Pigments Site at 5th Avenue and 24th Street in the City of Huntington. The cleanup site was historically used as part of a dyestuff and pigment manufacturing facility. Beginning in the 1920s, parts of the site were used for manufacturing, warehousing, and a parking lot. Soils at the site are contaminated with PCBs. Grant funds also will be used to hold eight public meetings and to attend four city council meetings.

You can read more about this year’s MARC selectees in West Virginia and other states and Tribes  MARC selectees.

Through its RLF program, WVDEP has successfully made loans or subgrants leading to three cleanup projects that are either completed or in progress. The BIL funding announced today will extend the capacity of the program to provide funding for more cleanups in the most underserved areas in the State of West Virginia.

Read more about this year’s RLF recipients.

Brownfields Technical Assistance Providers and Research Grants

EPA is also announcing funding selection for two Brownfields technical assistance opportunities. The Technical Assistance to Brownfields (TAB) selectees provide specialized technical knowledge, research, and training to help stakeholders understand brownfields-related subject matter, and guide them through the brownfield assessment, clean-up, and revitalization process. This assistance is a key part of the Biden-Harris Administration’s commitment to advance economic opportunities and address environmental justice issues in underserved communities. This technical assistance is available to all stakeholders and comes at no cost to communities. The two funding opportunities announced today include the following:

1. EPA selected West Virginia University Research Corporation to receive $5 million to provide training and technical assistance to communities across the state under the Technical Assistance to Brownfields (TAB) Communities Program. This funding comes entirely from the historic $1.5 billion investment from President Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.
2. EPA is also expanding the scope of its technical assistance offerings under the Brownfields and Land Revitalization Program to include three new subject-specific grants totaling $2 million in three areas, including providing technical assistance to nonprofits seeking to reuse brownfields; provide research, outreach, and guidance on minimizing displacement resulting from brownfields redevelopment; and providing outreach and guidance on land banking tactics for brownfields revitalization.

For more information about Brownfields Technical Assistance and Research, please visit  https://www.epa.gov/brownfields/brownfields-technical-assistance-and-research.

Additional Background:

EPA has selected these organizations to receive funding to address and support the reuse of brownfield sites. EPA anticipates making all the awards announced today once all legal and administrative requirements are satisfied.

• For more on Brownfields Grants: https://www.epa.gov/brownfields/types-brownfields-grant-funding
• For more on EPA’s Brownfields Program: https://www.epa.gov/brownfields

Original source can be found here.