Kansas City, Mo., and St. Louis to Receive EPA Brownfields Grants to Help toward Cleanup of Contaminated Properties

From EPA:

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Region 7

11201 Renner Blvd., Lenexa, Kansas 66219

Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, and Nine Tribal Nations

Kansas City, Mo., and St. Louis to Receive EPA Brownfields Grants to Help toward Cleanup of Contaminated Properties

Contact Information: Chris Whitley, 913-551-7394, whitley.christopher@epa.gov

Environmental News

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

(Lenexa, Kan., May 28, 2015) – EPA has selected the communities of Kansas City, Mo., and St. Louis to receive a total of $900,000 in grants from the agency’s Brownfields Program to assist with the environmental assessments of contaminated brownfields properties, a key step in paving the way toward their cleanup, redevelopment and sustainable reuse.

Kansas City and St. Louis were among the 147 communities announced today by EPA headquarters as recipients of the latest round of the agency’s brownfields assessment grants, a package of 243 awards totaling $54.3 million.

The City of Kansas City, Mo., will receive a $500,000 brownfields assessment grant to use with its coalition partners: Jackson County and the Land Clearance for Redevelopment Authority of Kansas City. The $500,000 grant includes $350,000 for up to seven Phase I and six Phase II environmental assessments of hazardous substances at specific properties, and up to five area-wide Phase I assessments of hazardous substances covering targeted neighborhoods. A similar $150,000 award for assessments of petroleum contamination will allow five Phase I assessments of specific properties, and one area-wide Phase I assessment in a commercial corridor. The Kansas City coalition will also use its funds to inventory an estimated 18,000 vacant properties in Kansas City, Mo., and Jackson County, Mo., and conduct community outreach.

The St. Louis Development Corporation will receive two brownfields assessment grants totaling $400,000. A $200,000 community-wide hazardous substances grant will help conduct six Phase I and six Phase II environmental site assessments, and cleanup planning at two sites. Grant funds will also be used to conduct community outreach activities. A $200,000 community wide petroleum grant will fund similar tasks at sites with potential petroleum contamination.

Since the inception of EPA’s Brownfields Program in 1995, cumulative brownfield program investments have leveraged more than $22 billion from a variety of public and private sources for cleanup and redevelopment activities. This equates to an average of $17.79 leveraged per EPA brownfield dollar expended. These investments have resulted in approximately 105,942 jobs nationwide.

EPA’s Brownfields Program empowers states, communities and other stakeholders to work together to prevent, assess, safely clean up, and sustainably reuse brownfields sites.

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