News Releases from Region 09
U.S. EPA Awards $400,000 to Assess and Clean Up Contamination in Gila County, Arizona
SAN FRANCISCO – Today, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced that the Gila County Industrial Development Authority (IDA) will receive $400,000 in federal funds to support revitalization and redevelopment efforts. Awarded through the Assessment, Revolving Loan Fund and Cleanup (ARC) grant program, these funds are part of $55.2 million being invested in 131 communities across the country. The grants will be used to assess and clean up historically contaminated properties, also known as brownfields, for reuse and development.
“EPA is committed to helping Arizona safely clean up abandoned and contaminated sites and transform them into community assets,” said Alexis Strauss, EPA’s Acting Regional Administrator for the Pacific Southwest. “This project will provide valuable economic support to Gila County while protecting public health and the environment.”
ARC grants can be used to either assess a brownfield site (including inventory work and cleanup planning) or to conduct cleanup activities. This helps communities to recycle vacant and abandoned properties for new, productive reuses.
The IDA will conduct 50 assessments at former industrial and commercial properties in the rural mining towns of Globe, Miami, and Claypool. The assessments, which will occur along 6 miles of US 60, will focus on commercial properties that can provide economic redevelopment opportunities. The IDA intends for the assessments to complement existing grassroots efforts set forth by the community.
The ARC grants advance EPA’s broader commitment to coordinating federal investments to help environmentally overburdened, underserved, and economically distressed communities address local priorities. Aligning federal resources allows agencies to better meet communities’ needs and communities to more effectively reap the benefits of collaborative investments. ARC grantees demonstrate a high level of preparedness to undertake specific projects, as they have firm commitments of leveraged funds to move projects forward. Seventy percent of recipients have secured public and private resources that will directly align and further the efforts of proposed projects.
There are an estimated 450,000 abandoned and contaminated waste sites in America. Since the inception of the EPA’s Brownfields Program in 1995, cumulative brownfields program investments have leveraged more than $20 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 brownfields dollar expended. These investments have resulted in nearly 109,000 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 on ARC grants: https://www.epa.gov/brownfields/types-brownfields-grant-funding
More on EPA’s Brownfields Program: https://www.epa.gov/brownfields
More on successful Brownfields stories: https://www.epa.gov/brownfields/brownfields-success-stories
# # #