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EPA Creates Jobs in Texarkana, Texas - Training will provide skilled environmental professionals

Release Date: 07/12/2011
Contact Information: Dave Bary or Joe Hubbard at 214-665-2200 or r6press@epa.gov

(DALLAS – July 12, 2011) The City of Texarkana is receiving $300,000 from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The project will provide environmental job training and workforce development to poverty stricken areas in Northeast Texas.

“The Brownfields Job Training Program provides a tremendous opportunity for people to learn the skills needed to secure fulltime employment in the environmental field,” said EPA Regional Administrator Al Armendariz. “Green job creation is important to our economy and we will continue to work with communities to further sustainable initiatives.”

Texarkana plans to place residents into environmental jobs after 370 hours of training in solid waste management, energy efficiency technologies and renewable energy preparation and installation. The City will also offer training in Hazardous Waste Operations and Emergency Response training and underground storage tank leak prevention, as well as construction and demolition waste recycling and renewable energy technologies awareness.

Texarkana will also directly work with regional employers, employment agencies and the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality to facilitate job placement. Recruits will include low-income residents, unemployed or underemployed residents.

EPA’s Environmental Workforce Development and Job Training Program helps train people for jobs in the assessment, cleanup and redevelopment of brownfields properties, including abandoned gas stations, old textile mills, closed smelters and other abandoned industrial and commercial properties. These investments target under-served and economically disadvantaged neighborhoods – places where environmental cleanups and new jobs are most needed.

More about activities in EPA Region 6: https://www.epa.gov/aboutepa/region6.html

EPA audio file is available at https://www.epa.gov/region6/6xa/podcast/jul2011.html