The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Friday announced $650,000 in funding to Northampton County, Pa. This is the fourth EPA brownfields grant awarded to the County to clean up contaminated properties for potential redevelopment.

“I’m pleased to present Northampton County this $650,000 grant to clean up contaminated sites,” said EPA Regional Administrator Shawn M. Garvin. “This new funding will plant the seeds for the next round of cleanup and eventual reuse of more brownfields sites in the Lehigh Valley, leveraging private investment and creating new jobs.”

Garvin was joined by Bethlehem Mayor John Callahan and other local officials from Northampton County and Easton at a press conference today held at the popular ArtsQuest Center, once the location of a steel furnace building.

Northampton County officials will work with the Lehigh Valley Economic Development Corp. in selecting up to four properties for eventual redevelopment. Since 2000, the County has successfully managed three EPA brownfields grants totaling more than $1 million, leveraged an additional $19 million, and created more than 150 jobs resulting from its brownfields projects.

EPA’s brownfields program encourages redevelopment of America’s estimated 450,000 abandoned and contaminated waste sites.

Since 1994 approximately 100 recipients in the mid-Atlantic region have shared more than $70 million in brownfields grants, breathing new life into old properties. These grants to communities, states and non-profits have resulted in over 1100 assessments and/or cleanups of brownfields properties, created more than 8,200 jobs, and leveraged $673 million in the mid-Atlantic area.

Click Here for an EPA fact sheet on the project.

NewsClip: EPA Awards Northampton County Brownfields Grant

9/17/2012