News Releases from Region 01
City of Taunton, Mass. Receives $500,000 to Redevelop Contaminated Brownfield Sites
BOSTON - The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) today selected the City of Taunton, Mass. to receive Brownfields Revolving Loan Fund (RLF) supplemental funding in the amount of $500,000. The additional support will help the City continue its work cleaning up contaminated brownfield properties.
The Brownfields RLF program supports EPA’s commitment to help environmentally overburdened communities address their local priorities. The funds 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.
"These supplemental funds help provide communities with resources to help clean up contamination, and turn blighted land into opportunities that can generate jobs and spur economic growth," said EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt.
RLF grants are often the last key piece of funding needed to make the cleanup and reuse of a brownfield property happen. They fund loans and sub-grants to carry out cleanup activities at brownfield sites. These supplemental funds are provided to communities with current RLF grants who have already achieved success in their brownfields work, and keep the momentum going.
"The City of Taunton is thrilled to receive this award which will allow us to clean-up additional blighted properties within our City limits, such as 100 Arlington Street, and place them back on our tax rolls," Mayor Hoye said. "This program was utilized in prior years to remediate several properties, including the former FB Rogers site. I want to thank our Federal Delegation for their assistance in securing these valuable funds, and the EPA for supporting Taunton’s remediation efforts."
Former successful RLF communities have leveraged more than $6.3 billion in cleanup and redevelopment investments and completed more than 657 cleanups. For example, RLF funds are being used to help turn the GKN Sinter Metals site in Worcester, Mass into an $18 million, 100,000 square foot recreational, youth and academic ice hockey rink complex and 40,000 square feet of retail space. The new complex will include two full size indoor ice rinks, training and condition centers, locker rooms, meeting space, concession area and a pro shop. The retail portion will include a restaurant, gym, café and shops. The $1.9 million cleanup is also being funded by MassDevelopment.
There are an estimated 450,000 abandoned and contaminated sites in the United States, and EPA brownfield grants are helping to make a visible difference in communities across the country. As of May 2017, more than 124,759 jobs and $24.3 billion of public and private funding has been leveraged.
On average, for every one EPA Brownfields dollar provided, $16.11 was leveraged. As for employment, on average, 8.5 jobs were leveraged per $100,000 of EPA brownfields funds expended on assessment, cleanup, and revolving loan fund cooperative agreements.
A recent national study has shown that cleaning up brownfields led to residential property value increases of 5 - 15.2% within a 1.24-mile radius of the site. (Haninger et al. 2017). Another study analyzing data near 48 brownfields found that an estimated $29 to $97 million in additional tax revenue is generated for local governments in a single year after cleanup. This is 2 to 7 times more than the $12.4 million EPA contributed to the cleanup of those brownfields.
For a list of FY 2017 applicants selected for RLF Supplemental Funds: www.epa.gov/brownfields/brownfields-fy17-rlf-supplemental-funds-award-selections
For more information on EPA’s brownfields program: www.epa.gov/brownfields
To see project examples and success stories: www.epa.gov/brownfields/brownfields-success-stories