News Releases from Region 04
Kentucky Energy and Environment Cabinet and the Louisville-Jefferson County Metro Government to Receive $750,000 for Cleanups of Contaminated Brownfield Sites
ATLANTA (June 8, 2018) – Today, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced that the Kentucky Energy and Environment Cabinet will receive $250,000 and the Louisville-Jefferson County Metro Government will 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 Kentucky 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.”
“Kentucky appreciates EPA’s continued support of its revolving loan fund programs and their efforts to redevelop brownfield properties across the commonwealth,” said Kentucky Energy and Environment Cabinet Division of Compliance Assistance Director Amanda W. LeFevre. “The additional funding will allow our programs to provide resources for communities to address blight, help protect human health and the environment and spur economic development in areas that have been left behind as times and the economy have changed.”
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