Deliver Your News to the World

Caldwell, Idaho Nets $200,000 in latest round of EPA “Brownfields” funding for revitalization project along Indian Creek


WEBWIRE

The city of Caldwell, Idaho was selected to receive a $200,000 Brownfields grant to conduct a community-wide inventory and assessment of contaminated sites in support of their downtown revitalization efforts, including the restoration of Indian Creek.

This grant allows the City to assess sites believed to be contaminated with hazardous substances targeting petroleum sites along the realigned path of Indian Creek in downtown Caldwell.
These assessments will provide critical information needed for the success of the redevelopment project.

Caldwell’s Mayor Garret Nancolas stated that “This grant will be extremely timely and valuable in determining the measures that need to be taken in the redevelopment of the City Center.”

According to Jim Werntz, Idaho Operations Office Director for EPA, the City has employed Smart Growth principals and made the restoration of the creek and creation of nearby greenspace the centerpiece of their downtown revitalization efforts.

“Once the extent of this contamination is fully assessed, the City can move forward with plans to redevelop this area into a multi-use commercial, cultural and recreational corridor that will create jobs and spur additional investment in the City’s downtown,” said Werntz.

Including the grant to Caldwell, communities in Idaho were selected for a total of five EPA Brownfields competitive grants in 2007 totaling nearly $940,000 in funding:

Idaho Department of Parks and Recreation (IDPR) will receive $339,000 to assist in the cleanup of the Bayhorse Mining District’s Pacific Mine Site and Beardsley-Excelsior Mine near the town of Challis, in Custer County. This funding follows a $200,000 EPA Brownfields grant awarded in 2006 to cleanup the Bayhorse Town Site. All three cleanups support a multi-agency effort led by IDPR to cleanup and protect 500 acres of properties in the Historic Bayhorse Mining District.

Finally, Idaho Department of Environmental Quality (IDEQ) will receive $400,000 in grant funding to assess publicly-owned abandoned landfill sites and abandoned petroleum sites throughout the State of Idaho. This funding will be used to target sites that have potential for redevelopment as open space and affordable housing as well as sites tied to economic development activities; it also a serves as a perfect compliment the State’s expanding array of funding and technical assistance tools to support brownfields assessments and cleanups.

EPA’s Brownfields Program empowers states, communities and other stakeholders to work together to prevent, assess, safely clean up and sustainably reuse brownfields. A brownfields site is real property, the expansion, redevelopment or reuse of which may be complicated by the presence or potential presence of a hazardous substance, pollutant or contaminant.



WebWireID37731





This news content was configured by WebWire editorial staff. Linking is permitted.

News Release Distribution and Press Release Distribution Services Provided by WebWire.