EPA Awards $1.2 Million to Cleanup and Revitalize Rhode Island Communities

News Release
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
New England Regional Office
May 29, 2012

Contact: David Deegan, EPA Public Affairs, (617) 918-1010

EPA Awards $1.2 Million to Cleanup and Revitalize Rhode Island Communities
Neighborhoods to gain economic, health, environmental benefits

(Boston, Mass. – May 29, 2012) – EPA is providing $1.2 million in Brownfields grants to help Rhode Island communities to assess, cleanup and redevelop abandoned or contaminated properties.  The funding is part of more than $69 million in EPA brownfields investments across the country announced by EPA last week to protect health and the environment, create jobs and promote economic re-development in American communities.

The grant money can assist work to reclaim sites including old textile mills, sites containing hazardous substances and petroleum products and other abandoned industrial and commercial properties.  EPA’s Brownfields program encourages redevelopment of America’s estimated 450,000 abandoned and contaminated waste sites.

In Rhode Island this year, EPA is providing Brownfields grants to the following municipalities and groups:

• Blackstone Valley Community Action Program, Pawtucket, $200,000 (cleanup grant, Lonsdale Ave. parcel)
• Mosaico Business & Community Dev. Corp., Bristol, $200,000 (cleanup grant, Bristol Industrial Park parcel)
• Paul Cuffee School, Providence, $400,000 (two cleanup grants, Living Room Site - Parcels A & B, 15-27 Rathbone St.)
• Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management, $400,000 (two community-wide assessment of hazardous substances and petroleum contamination grants) 

“EPA Brownfields funding helps strengthen the economic foundation and is a catalyst for further growth in our communities,” said Curt Spalding, regional administrator of EPA New England’s office. “Cleaning and revitalizing contaminated sites helps create jobs, and can help a community to create new businesses and neighborhood centers, while making our environment cleaner and the community healthier.”

Since the beginning of EPA’s Brownfields Program, in New England alone EPA has awarded 296 assessment grants totaling $72.7 million, 62 revolving loan fund grants and supplemental funding totaling $68.4 million and 213 cleanup grants totaling $47 million.  These grant funds have paved the way for more than $1.45 billion in public and private cleanup and redevelopment investment and for 9,756 jobs in assessment, cleanup, construction and redevelopment on over 2200 sites across New England.

Nationally, the figures are impressive: As of May 2012, EPA’s brownfields assistance has leveraged more than $18.3 billion in cleanup and redevelopment funding from a variety of public and private sources and helped create approximately 75,500 jobs. More than 18,000 properties have been assessed, and over 700 properties have been cleaned up. These investments and jobs target local, under-served and economically disadvantaged neighborhoods – places where environmental cleanups and new jobs are most needed.

More Information:

EPA Brownfields program in New England: http://epa.gov/region1/brownfields/index.html

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