U.S. EPA Awards $600,000 of Brownfield Grants to Green Bay

EPA Press Release:

For Immediate Release    No. 13-OPA016

U.S. EPA Awards $600,000 of Brownfield Grants to Green Bay

(Green Bay, Wis. -- June 11, 2013) U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Regional Administrator Susan Hedman today joined Mayor Jim Schmitt at the former Tillman Nursery site to announce the award of brownfield grants totaling $600,000 to the City of Green Bay, Wisconsin, to assess and clean up contaminated sites.

"These EPA brownfield grants will be used by the City of Green Bay to assess and clean up contaminated properties," said Region 5 Administrator Susan Hedman. "The City will use these grants to revitalize blighted areas, stimulate economic development, and create jobs."

“The grants are a great example of local government partnering with the federal government to improve the vitality of our downtown along the Fox and East Rivers, and the Velp Avenue, Webster Avenue and University Avenue corridors,” Green Bay Mayor Jim Schmitt said.

EPA awarded a $400,000 grant to Green Bay for environmental assessments in the downtown area along the Fox and East Rivers, Velp Avenue Corridor and Webster Avenue Corridor so that land can be cleaned up and redeveloped.

EPA also awarded a $200,000 area-wide planning grant to Green Bay for the University Avenue Corridor, which runs approximately four miles from the East River to the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay. The EPA planning grant will help the city create plans for brownfields sites to stimulate additional economic development along the University Avenue Corridor. The University Avenue Corridor includes a Veterans Administration Outpatient Clinic, which is expected to open this summer.

The funding announced today builds on a $400,000 grant EPA awarded Green Bay in 2007 to assess former industrial sites along the Fox River. EPA’s 2007 grant helped create hundreds of jobs, prepare 13 acres for reuse and spurred the development of the Green Bay Children’s Museum, Hagemeister Park Restaurant and the Schreiber Foods corporate headquarters that is planned to be completed next year.

More information on brownfields grants by state: http://cfpub.epa.gov/bf_factsheets/

More information on brownfields: http://epa.gov/brownfields/