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U.S. EPA Awards Funds for Reno Brownfields Project

Release Date: 6/20/2003
Contact Information: Lisa Fasano, (415) 947-4307

     SAN FRANCISCO   The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced today that the Reno Redevelopment Agency will receive a $200,000 Brownfield grant to clean up pollution from the Sage Motel site, a vacant lot that was formerly used as an auto repair shop.
    The soil and groundwater at the Sage Motel site are contaminated with tetrachloroethylene   a known carcinogen   which is widely used as a degreaser.
     This grant is among the first to be awarded under the Brownfields Revitalization and Environmental Restoration Act signed into law in January 2002.  The act authorizes up to $250 million per year for Brownfields grants, including up to $50 million for the assessment and cleanup of low-risk petroleum contaminated sites.
    "These grants will help turn neighborhood eyesores into community assets, restoring hope and creating opportunity for the people who live nearby," said EPA Administrator Christie Whitman said. "From the signing by President Bush of landmark Brownfields legislation last year, to the more than doubling of funds made available for Brownfields reclamation, this Administration has proven its commitment to the environmental cleanup and economic revitalization of our nation's communities."
         "The Brownfields Act recognizes that cleanup money is needed to help restore abandoned properties back into productive use by providing local jobs, needed tax revenues and recreational benefits that have been lost,"  said Wayne Nastri, the EPA's regional administrator for the Pacific Southwest region. "These grants represent a committed partnership between federal government and community interests to work together to make these sites whole again."
     The money going to the Reno Development Agency is part of  $73.1 million being awarded nationally that will fund 117 Brownfield assessment grants totaling $30.7 million, 69 cleanup grants totaling $12 million and 28 revolving loan fund grants totaling $30.4 million.
    In the Pacific Southwest Region of the EPA, $7.9 million is being awarded in California, Nevada and Arizona. Since the Brownfields program began in 1995, $32.9 million in grants has been awarded regionally.
More information about EPA's Brownfields program is available at: https://www.epa.gov/swerosps/bf/index.html
Also visit:
https://www.epa.gov/region09/waste/brown/
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