On October 25, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency awarded a $200,000 Brownfields grant to the nonprofit organization Auberle based in McKeesport, Allegheny County.

It is one of 26 organizations nationwide to receive a total of $5.1 million in grants for environmental job training programs.

Funded through the agency’s Environmental Workforce Development and Job Training Program, these grants help to create a skilled workforce in communities where EPA brownfields assessment and cleanup activities are taking place.

“EPA is proud to support Auberle’s environmental job training program in Southwestern Pennsylvania.” said EPA Mid-Atlantic Regional Administrator Cosmo Servidio. “Auberle operates a highly respected and award-winning workforce development program with a strong network of partners to help graduates attain important jobs in the environmental field.”

In 2016, Auberle completed its first EPA job training grant and placed 34 graduates in environmental jobs and leveraging more than $35,000 to support the program. Auberle, has 102 employing partners and 89 referral agencies throughout the region.

With this new grant, Auberle plans to place an additional 35 graduates in environmental jobs.

Since EPA’s Job Training Program began in 1998, more than 288 grants have been awarded. More than 18,000 individuals have completed training, and of those, more than 13,679 individuals have been placed in full-time employment earning an average starting wage of more than $14 an hour.

Rather than filling local jobs with contractors from distant cities, EPA created its environmental job training program to offer residents of communities historically affected by environmental pollution, economic disinvestment, and brownfields an opportunity to gain the skills and certifications needed to secure local environmental work in their communities.

All 26 selected programs plan to serve communities with census tracts designated as federal Opportunity Zones – an economically-distressed community where new investments, under certain conditions, may be eligible for preferential tax treatment.

Click Here for more information on all 26 job training grants awarded.

For more information on this, and other brownfields-related grants, visit EPA’s Brownfields Grants webpage.

NewsClips:

Click Here to read this week’s PA Environment & Energy NewsClips

Related Articles:

EPA Accepting Applications For Brownfields Assessment, Cleanup Loans, Grants

EPA Awards $300,000 Brownfields Assessment Grant To Philadelphia Redevelopment Authority

Gov. Wolf Announces $3.4 Million In Grants To Support 7 Industrial Site Cleanup Projects

[Posted: October 25, 2019]

10/28/2019