(New York, N.Y.) The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is providing $400,000 to Niagara County, New York, to assess abandoned and contaminated properties. The funding was awarded through the EPA's Brownfields program, which helps communities assess, clean up and reuse contaminated properties. Brownfields are properties with moderate contamination which can threaten environmental quality and public health and can interfere with redevelopment.

"Niagara County has a toxic legacy that has interfered with future use of hundreds of properties," said EPA Regional Administrator Judith A. Enck. "EPA's brownfields program and this brownfields grant will support Niagara County's work to protect public health and the environment while cleaning up contaminated properties that dot the county."

Niagara County will use a $200,000 community-wide hazardous substance assessment grant and a $200,000 community-wide petroleum assessment grant to determine the nature and extent of environmental contamination at some of the county's 338 brownfields sites. These include the locations of former dry cleaners, chemical manufacturers, automotive repair facilities, gas stations and other contaminated properties. The funds will also be used to determine the public health and environmental impacts of these sites, and to support community outreach activities.

Since the inception of the EPA's Brownfields program in 1995, cumulative brownfield program investments have leveraged more than $21 billion from a variety of public and private sources for cleanup and redevelopment activities. This equates to an average of nearly $18 leveraged for every EPA brownfield dollar expended. These investments have resulted in creating approximately 93,000 jobs nationwide. These projects demonstrate the positive impact a small investment of federal brownfields funding can have on community revitalization through leveraging jobs, producing clean energy, and providing recreation opportunities for surrounding neighborhoods. The EPA's Brownfields Program empowers states, communities, and others to work together to prevent, assess, safely clean up, and sustainably reuse brownfields sites.

Additional information on EPA Brownfields activities is available at http://epa.gov/brownfields.

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