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Shreveport Area to Receive Almost $200,000 in EPA Brownfield Grants

Release Date: 6/15/2004
Contact Information: For more information contact the Office of External Affairs at (214) 665-2200.

      The Northwest Louisiana Council of Governments and the Biomedical Research Foundation of Northwest Louisiana will receive grants from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to facilitate redevelopment of former abandoned properties, EPA announced today.   The grants are part of a nationwide selection of 219 applicants sharing more than $75 million in EPA Brownfields grants.  The Brownfields program helps support revitalization efforts by funding environmental assessment, cleanup activities, and job training.

      "These federal grants are awarded under the Brownfields Act signed by President Bush in January 2002.  The landmark legislation continues to help local and state leaders throughout the country in their efforts to revitalize abandoned properties," EPA Regional Administrator Richard E. Greene said.  "The importance of making these properties available to the community, providing jobs, needed tax revenues and recreational benefits that were not there before is a priority for us as we work towards our goal to recycle and renew polluted land."

      The Northwest Louisiana Council of Governments will receive a $152,429 assessment grant to promote its partnership with the Biomedical Research Foundation of Northwest Louisiana for assessments of two properties located in the Foundation's InterTech Science Park.  The Foundation convened 80 government and community leaders to plan the Science Park.  Original plans to locate the Park in a undeveloped area were changed to place it in a blighted manufacturing area in downtown Shreveport as part of a Smart Growth initiative.

      The Biomedical Research Foundation of Northwest Louisiana, a nonprofit organization, will receive a cleanup grant of $43,431 to clean a former Modern Iron Works facility in the InterTech Science Park. Assessment grants are used to provide funding for property inventories, planning, environmental assessments, and community outreach.  Brownfields cleanup grants provide direct funding for cleanup activities at eligible sites contaminated with hazardous substances or petroleum.  

      EPA's Brownfields program also provides funding to assist states and tribes in developing area-wide Voluntary Cleanup Programs.  These programs provide states, tribes, municipalities and communities useful information and strategies to promote a unified approach to site assessment, environmental cleanup and redevelopment of contaminated properties.

      In March 2004, 16 communities received job training grants totaling $2.47 million to teach environmental cleanup job skills to 1,080 individuals living near Brownfields sites.  

      More information about EPA's Brownfields program and grants awarded nationwide is available at www.epa.gov/brownfields.  More information about EPA's goals is available at http://epa.gov/adminweb/leavitt/500dayplan.htm.

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