The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency will award approximately $4 million in grants to 20 communities across the country to assist with planning for cleanup and reuse of Brownfields properties.

In Pennsylvania, grants were awarded to the Cumberland County Redevelopment Authority and the Philadelphia City Planning Commission.

This funding is part of the Brownfields Area-Wide (BF AWP) Planning program, which aims to promote community revitalization by using cleanups to stimulate local economies and protect people’s health and the environment. EPA’s Brownfields program encourages the redevelopment of abandoned and potentially contaminated waste sites across the country.

“EPA continues to respond to Brownfields challenges in communities of every size by encouraging strong public-private partnerships and promoting innovative and creative ways to assess, clean up and redevelop Brownfields sites,” said Mathy Stanislaus, assistant administrator for EPA’s Office of Solid Waste and Emergency Response. “The area-wide planning approach recognizes that revitalization of the area surrounding the Brownfields sites is critical to the successful reuse of the property as cleanup and redevelopment of an individual site. The locally-driven planning process will help communities create a shared vision for and commitment to revitalization.”

For more information, visit EPA’s Brownfields webpage.

4/29/2013