EPA Grants to Help Revitalize and Redevelop Clearwater, FL Brownfields

The City of Clearwater, Florida and the Clearwater Homeless Intervention Project have been selected for a total of $600,000 in EPA brownfields assessment and cleanup grants to conduct environmental site assessments and cleanups in targeted redevelopment areas with potential hazardous substances and petroleum contamination. The City of Clearwater will use $400,000 to target assessments in the Clearwater Brownfields Area, and the Clearwater Homeless Intervention Project will use $200,000 to conduct cleanup of the former Carpro property in Clearwater. The combined total of brownfields grant funds for assessment or cleanup of properties in Florida is $2 million.

In the Southeast, 29 communities have been selected to receive grants for assessment or cleanup of properties. Nationally, EPA awarded $70.7 million to communities in 38 states, two territories and five tribal nations to help revitalize former industrial and commercial sites, making them available for productive community use. The brownfields program encourages redevelopment of America’s estimated 450,000 abandoned and contaminated waste sites. Since the beginning of the program, 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.

Brownfields are sites where expansion, redevelopment, or reuse may be complicated by the presence or potential presence of a hazardous substance, pollutant, or contaminant. In January 2002, President Bush signed the Small Business Liability Relief and Brownfields Revitalization Act, which authorizes annual funding for brownfields grants. The 2002 law expanded the definition of brownfields, so communities may now focus on mine-scarred lands or sites contaminated by petroleum or the manufacture and distribution of illegal drugs.

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.