U.S. EPA awards 2 Brownfields grants totaling $400,000 in Central Calif.

SAN FRANCISCO -- Today the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency awarded a collective $400,000 to the Tulare Redevelopment Agency and the City of Sutter Creek to clean up contaminated sites in both communities.

Nationally, the EPA awarded 302 grants totaling $75.9 million today as part of the agency’s Brownfields program, which provides funding to clean up and redevelop contaminated properties.

“The brownfields program empowers communities to return blighted eyesores into community assets,” said Wayne Nastri, administrator of the U.S. EPA’s Pacific Southwest Office in San Francisco. “These grants provide jobs, curb suburban sprawl and clean up contaminated properties all at once. We look forward to helping more communities throughout the Pacific Southwest take advantage of this win-win grants program.”

The Central Calif. EPA Brownfields grants are distributed as follows:

$200,000 to the Tulare Redevelopment Agency– to clean up the 5-acre Imperial Anchor Pallet property. Hazardous waste was discovered following a 1985 fire. The clean up will remove the health and safety risks associated with the site and make it available for redevelopment. EPA funds will also be used to conduct community outreach.

$200,000 to the City of Sutter Creek – to clean up the Minehead site at the Central Eureka Mine. The Minehead site contains a mining waste that is impacted with heavy metals. EPA funds are also being used to support community involvement activities. Post-clean up plans include redeveloping the area as a historic park and walking trail that will add 12 acres of parkland to Sutter Creek

The brownfields program encourages redevelopment of America’s estimated 450,000 abandoned and contaminated waste sites. Since the beginning of the program, the EPA has awarded 1,067 assessment grants totaling more than $262 million, 217 revolving loan fund grants totaling more than $201.7 million, and 336 cleanup grants totaling $61.3 million.

In addition to industrial and commercial redevelopment, brownfields approaches have included the conversion of industrial waterfronts to river-front parks, landfills to golf courses, rail corridors to recreational trails, and gas stations to housing. EPA’s brownfields assistance has leveraged more than $9.6 billion in cleanup and redevelopment, helped create more than 43,029 jobs and resulted in the assessment of more than 10,504 properties and the cleanup of 180 properties.