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U.S. EPA Announces $1.2 million in Brownfields Grants to Promote Economic Redevelopment in Carson City, Douglas and Nye Counties

Approximately $56.8 million to be awarded nationwide

05/31/2017
Contact Information: 
Margot Perez-Sullivan (perezsullivan.margot@epa.gov)
415-947-4149

SAN FRANCISCO – Today, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced that the Northern Nevada Development Authority and the Nye County Coalition will receive a total of $1.2 million in federal grant funds for brownfield site revitalization efforts. These grants are part of the $56.8 million awarded nationally to 172 recipients to assess and clean up historically contaminated properties, also known as brownfields, to help local governments redevelop vacant and unused properties, transforming communities and local economies.

“EPA is committed to working with communities to redevelop Brownfields sites which have plagued their neighborhoods. EPA’s Assessment and Cleanup grants target communities that are economically disadvantaged and include places where environmental cleanup and new jobs are most needed," said EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt. "These grants leverage considerable infrastructure and other investments, improving local economies and creating an environment where jobs can grow. I am very pleased the President’s budget recognizes the importance of these grants by providing continued funding for this important program.”

The Northern Nevada Development Authority (NNDA), in partnership with the Consolidated Municipality of Carson City and Douglas County, will use EPA’s $600,000 grant to assess brownfield properties in Carson City, Genoa, Minden and Gardnerville, as well as business and industrial properties in Douglas County.  The assessment of environmentally complicated properties is the first step in moving properties back into productive reuse. The future redevelopment of these brownfield properties aligns with the long-term goals of the communities served by the grant, such as redeveloping main street corridors, reducing traffic lanes, promoting public transit, adding pedestrian and bike ways and increasing commercial and industrial space.

Nye County, a member of the Rural Desert Southwest Brownfields Coalition, will use EPA’s $600,000 grant to spur economic redevelopment and support renewable energy and food security within a geographic area of over 55,000 square miles. The coalition comprises seven partners, including Nye, Esmeralda, Lincoln, Mineral and White Pine Counties in Nevada; Inyo County in California; and the Duckwater Shoshone Tribe in Nye County, Nevada. The work will focus on mine-scarred lands, distressed tribal properties, properties transferred to local governments by default and abandoned gas stations. The redevelopment and reuse of these brownfield properties will create jobs, increase local tax revenue and diversify the economy.

Overview of the funds being announced today:

  • $25 million to communities who are receiving assessment and cleanup funding for the first time
  • $17.5 million of the assessment and cleanup funding will benefit small and rural communities with populations less than 10,000
  • Recipients will each receive approximately $200,000 - $600,000 in funding to work on individual sites or several sites within their community
  • These funds will provide communities with resources necessary to determine the extent of site contamination, remove environmental uncertainties and clean up contaminated properties where needed.

Studies have shown that residential property values near brownfields sites that are cleaned up increased between 5 and 15.2% within a 1.24-mile radius of that site. A study analyzing data near 48 brownfield sites shows that an estimated $29 to $97 million in additional tax revenue was 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 those brownfields.

As of May 2017, more than 124,759 jobs and $24 billion of public and private funding has been leveraged as a result of assessment grants and other EPA Brownfields grants. On average, $16.11 was leveraged for each EPA Brownfields dollar and 8.5 jobs leveraged per $100,000 of EPA Brownfields funds expended on assessment, cleanup, and revolving loan fund cooperative agreements.

View the list of the FY 2017 applicants selected for funding here: https://www.epa.gov/brownfields/brownfields-list-fy17-grants-selected-funding

More on EPA’s Brownfields program:  https://epa.gov/brownfields

More on successful Brownfields stories: https://www.epa.gov/brownfields/brownfields-success-stories

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