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EPA Announces $400,000 Brownfields Funding To Assess Abandoned Baltimore Properties

Release Date: 05/08/2009
Contact Information: David Sternberg sternberg.david@epa.gov, 215-814-5548

PHILADELPHIA (May 8, 2009) -- The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced today that the Baltimore Development Corp. will receive $400,000 in EPA brownfields funding to help assess abandoned industrial properties in Baltimore.

"Brownfields initiatives demonstrate how environmental protection and economic development work hand-in-hand," said William C. Early, acting regional administrator for EPA's mid-Atlantic region. "Along with generating jobs, this grant will help the city of Baltimore reclaim property that has been unused for years and turn those sites into assets for the community, the environment, and the economy,"

This grant will help assess more than 1,000 potential brownfields sites that occupy more than 2,400 acres of former industrial properties in the city. Through the assessments, the Baltimore Development Corp. will identify contaminated areas and address related environmental and human health concerns.

Brownfieldgrants help to assess, clean and redevelop abandoned, contaminated properties known as brownfields. Brownfields are sites where expansion, redevelopment, or reuse may be complicated by the presence or potential presence of a hazardous substance, pollutant, or contaminant. In addition, the Small Business Liability Relief and Brownfields Revitalization Act of 2002 expanded the definition of a brownfield to include mine-scarred lands or sites contaminated by petroleum or the manufacture of illegal drugs. Grant recipients are selected through a national competition.

The Brownfields Program encourages cleanup and redevelopment of America’s estimated 450,000 brownfields sites. Since the beginning of the Brownfields Program, EPA has awarded 1449 assessment grants totaling over $337.3 million, 242 revolving loan fund grants totaling over $233.4 million, and 534 cleanup grants totaling $93.3 million.

Additional information on the brownfields recepients is available at https://www.epa.gov/reg3hwmd/bf-lr/ .

Information on the national EPA Brownfields Program, including brownfields activities under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, is also available at https://www.epa.gov/brownfields/.