By STAFF REPORTS
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency last week announced $232 million in brownfields grants, including several projects in Florida.
Brownfields are properties that contain or may contain a hazardous substance, pollutant or contaminant, complicating efforts to expand, redevelop or reuse them. The U.S. EPA estimates the country has more than 450,000 such properties throughout the country. It provides grant funding to local communities to clean the properties to provide an opportunity to reuse them for development.
Awarded grant projects range from pre-cleaning assessments to cleanups and loan programs.
Five projects in Florida total about $4.7 million.
| Eco Ed Impact Corp | Job Training | $500,000 |
| Gadsden County | Assessment | $500,000 |
| City of Lake Alfred | Cleanup | $1,995,605 |
| Palmetto Community Redevelopment Agency | Assessment | $500,000 |
| South Florida Regional Planning Council | Assessment | $1,200,000 |
The Eco Ed Impact Corp is a grant to train 80 students in the Miami Metropolitan Area on hazardous material work. The three assessment grants will focus on a dry cleaner site, a redevelopment site, as well as a 7-acre complex with one-store duplexes and former lumberyard/mill warehouse. The City of Lake Alfred cleanup grant seeks to improve upon a 7.7-acre former fertilizer processing plant that operated from 1934 to 2019.
For more information, visit https://java.epa.gov/acrespub/gfs/
