News Releases from Region 06

San Antonio, TX, Receives EPA Investment Grant

DALLAS - (May 28, 2015) Today, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced the city of San Antonio is one of 146 communities across the country to be awarded a total of $54.3 million in investment grants. These grants will provide communities with funding to assess, clean and redevelop contaminated properties, boost local economies and leverage jobs while protecting public health and the environment. The city will receive $400,000 for hazardous waste and petroleum contamination funding.

"Brownfields sites are community assets that can foster economic development by reuse and involve community members in the process," said EPA Regional Administrator Ron Curry. "We are pleased to equip communities with the tools to address environmental challenges in their neighborhoods."

The funding will help San Antonio assess brownfields sites, which are abandoned sites that are difficult to redevelop because of the presence or potential presence of contamination. The assessment will focus on three priority areas to restore urban waterways, attract business, construct new multifamily housing and sustainably reuse existing buildings. By creatively combining available resources, the city secured over $470 million to advance community goals which will help ensure revitalize these areas.

Since its inception in 1995, EPA's brownfields program has leveraged more than $22 billion from a variety of public and private sources for cleanup and redevelopment activities. This equates to an average of $17.79 leveraged per EPA brownfield dollar expended. These investments have resulted in approximately 105,942 jobs nationwide. EPA's Brownfields Program empowers states, communities, and other stakeholders to work together to prevent, assess, safely clean up, and sustainably reuse brownfields sites.

More about the Brownfields program in EPA Region 6:

http://www.epa.gov/region6/6sf/brownfields/

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Activities in EPA Region 6: http://www.epa.gov/aboutepa/region6.htm