Epa Presents Six Brownfields Grants Totaling $4.4 Million To Minnesota
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Region 5 has presented six brownfields grants worth a total of $4.4 million to Minnesota communities and agencies for revitalization projects in the state. Brownfields are abandoned or underutilized properties where real or perceived environmental contamination has slowed redevelopment.
EPA Region 5 Administrator Tom Skinner presented checks for the projects at a ceremony at the Bruce Vento Nature Sanctuary in St. Paul, one of the properties that will be redeveloped under EPA’s Brownfields Program. “Brownfields redevelopment does much more than turn neighborhood eyesores into community assets,” Skinner told the recipients. “It restores hope and creates opportunity.”
Minnesota recipients are: City of St. Paul, $400,000; St. Paul Port Authority, $1.6 million; Hennepin County, $400,000; City of Little Falls, $600,000; Minneapolis Community Development Agency, $400,000; Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development, $1 million.
Nationally, EPA has announced $73.1 million in brownfields funds for 176 recipients. Under the Small Business and Liability Relief and Brownfields Revitalization Act, EPA provides financial assistance to eligible applicants through four competitive grant programs: assessment grants, revolving loan fund grants, cleanup grants and job training grants. Before this last round of grants, Minnesota had received brownfields funding totaling more than $5.5 million.