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EPA Awards $160,750 in Brownfields Grants to Hattiesburg, MS

Release Date: 05/10/2005
Contact Information:

Contact: Laura Niles, (404) 562-8353
niles.laura@epa.gov

( Atlanta - May 10, 2005) The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced today that it has awarded $160,750 in Brownfields Grants to help the city of Hattiesburg, Miss., revitalize former industrial and commercial sites. The Brownfields Program empowers states, communities, and other stakeholders in economic development to work together to prevent, assess, safely clean up, and sustainably reuse brownfields. Participants in the brownfields program gain access to expertise and other resources from more than 20 federal agencies.

A brownfield site is real property, the expansion, redevelopment, or reuse of which may be complicated by the presence or potential presence of harmful contaminants. The Brownfields Program promotes redevelopment of America's estimated 450,000 abandoned and contaminated waste sites. Since its inception in 1995, the program has awarded 709 assessment grants totaling more than $190 million, 189 revolving loan fund grants worth more than $165 million, and $26.8 million for 150 cleanup grants.  

In addition to facilitating industrial and commercial redevelopment, brownfields projects have converted industrial waterfronts to river-front parks, landfills to golf courses, rail corridors to recreational trails, and gas station sites to housing. EPA's brownfields assistance has led to more than $7 billion in public and private investment in cleanup and redevelopment, helped create more than 31,000 jobs, and resulted in the assessment of more than 5,100 properties.

The Hattiesburg Grant announced today is a $160,750 Assessment Grant for hazardous substances. The grant funds will be used to perform site assessments, develop cleanup and reuse plans, and conduct community outreach activities. The Hattiesburg targeted brownfields are in the historically minority Mobile-Bouie neighborhood, where historical land uses included a service center and truck stop, cotton gin, oil seed processing facility, fertilizer blending operation, wood treatment production, crematory and incinerator, and storage facility for bulk oil, gasoline, and diesel.

For more information on the grant recipients, go to: https://www.epa.gov/swerosps/bf/archive/pilot_arch.htm

More information on brownfields in general is at https://www.epa.gov/brownfields