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News Releases from Region 04

City of Atlanta and Decide Development Authority of DeKalb County Receive $1 Million for Cleanups of Contaminated Brownfield Sites

06/08/2018
Contact Information: 
Dawn Harris-Young (harris-young.dawn@epa.gov)
(404) 562-8421 (Direct), (404) 562-8400 (Main)

ATLANTA (June 8, 2018) – Today, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced that the City of Atlanta and the Decide Development Authority of DeKalb County will each receive $500,000 for cleanups of contaminated brownfield sites.

“These supplemental funds provide communities with resources they need to help clean up contamination, which can generate jobs and spur economic growth” said EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt. “These funds help keep the cleanup momentum going so more cleanups are completed and more land can be returned to beneficial reuse.”

Nationally, communities received approximately $15.7 million in supplemental funding to assist them in cleaning up contaminated brownfield properties. EPA plans to provide supplemental funding to 33 successful, existing Revolving Loan Fund (RLF) grantees, helping communities carry out cleanup and redevelopment projects.

“This Brownfields funding will help communities in metro Atlanta revitalize abandoned or underutilized properties, and return them to productive use,” said Region 4 Administrator Trey Glenn. These funds will benefit both the economy and the environment by protecting people from harmful pollution and expediting Brownfield projects.

“We are excited about the additional $1.0 million in revolving loan funds that will be spent on environmental cleanups of brownfield properties in the City of Atlanta and DeKalb County,” said Georgia Environmental Protection Division Brownfields Coordinator Shannon Ridley. “Environmental cleanup is a vital step to making sure that brownfields are safe for reuse and redevelopment”.

The Brownfields RLF program supports EPA’s commitment to assist communities in addressing environmentally challenged properties and meet their local revitalization priorities. The supplemental funds announced today will help communities reuse vacant and abandoned properties and turn them into community assets such as housing, recreation and open space, health facilities, social services, transportation options, infrastructure and commerce opportunities.

RLFs specifically supply funding for loans and sub-grants to carry out cleanup activities at brownfield sites. The supplemental funding to each grantee ranges from about $200,000 to $500,000. These funds are provided to communities that have achieved success in their work to clean up and redevelop brownfield sites.

A recent national study shows that cleaning up brownfields leads to residential property value increases of 5 - 15.2 percent within a 1.24-mile radius of the site. Another study analyzing data near 48 brownfields found that an estimated $29 - $97 million in additional tax revenue is generated for local governments in a single year after cleanup. This is two to seven times more than the $12.4 million EPA contributed to the cleanup of those brownfields.

More information on EPA’s Brownfields program is available at: http://www.epa.gov/brownfields

https://www.epa.gov/brownfields/announcing-fy18-supplemental-funding-brownfields-revolving-loan-fund-grants