On May 20, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced more than $16 million in grant awards from the Investing in America funding to expedite the assessment and cleanup of brownfield sites in Pennsylvania while advancing environmental justice.

These investments through EPA’s Brownfields Multipurpose, Assessment, and Cleanup (MAC) Grant Programs will help transform once-polluted, vacant, and abandoned properties into community assets, while helping to create good jobs and spur economic revitalization in overburdened communities.

“President Biden sees contaminated sites and blighted areas as an opportunity to invest in healthier, revitalized communities,” said EPA Administrator Michael S. Regan. “That why he secured historic funding under the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, supercharging EPA’s Brownfields program to clean up contaminated properties in overburdened communities and bring them back into productive use.”

Many communities that are under economic stress, particularly those located in areas that have experienced long periods of disinvestment, lack the resources needed to initiate brownfield cleanup and redevelopment projects.

As brownfield sites are transformed into community assets, they attract jobs, promote economic revitalization, and transform communities into sustainable and environmentally just places.

Thanks to the historic $1.5 billion boost from the federal Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, EPA’s Brownfields Program is helping more communities than ever before begin to address the economic, social, and environmental challenges caused by brownfields and stimulate economic opportunity and environmental revitalization in historically overburdened communities.

EPA’s Brownfields Program advances President Biden’s Justice40 Initiative which set a goal that 40% of the overall benefits of certain Federal investments flow to disadvantaged communities that are marginalized by underinvestment and overburdened by pollution.

The Brownfields Program strives to meet this commitment and advance environmental justice and equity considerations in all aspects of its work.

Approximately 86% of the MAC and RLF Supplemental program applications selected to receive funding proposed to work in areas that include disadvantaged communities.

Pennsylvania Brownfields Grants

-- Butler County – Assessment Grant; $850,000: Funds will be used to conduct environmental site assessments, develop cleanup and reuse plans, and support community engagement activities.

The target area for this grant is Butler County with a focus on Butler City and the Townships of Allegheny, Slippery Rock, and Cranberry. Priority sites include a 35-acre vacant and demolished former steel factory, a 2-acre former jeep production facility, a 45-acre former industrial park, and a 150-acre stone quarry.

-- Cameron County – Assessment Grant; $1,500,000: Funds will be used to inventory sites and conduct environmental site assessments, develop cleanup and reuse plans, and support area-wide planning and community engagement activities.

Assessment activities will occur throughout the North Central Region of Pennsylvania with a focus on Cameron, Clearfield, and Potter Counties.

Priority sites include an abandoned and vacant lumber yard, a property historically used for manufacturing munitions, a former dump site, and a 17-acre former paper mill with numerous stone, brick, and concrete structures and ruins created when a dam broke in 1911.

-- Cresson Township – Cleanup Grant; $325,000: Funded by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, funds will be used to clean up the Cresson Ridge site.

The 13.5-acre cleanup site was historically used as a service station, barber shop, restaurant, living quarters, motel, and an ice cream/fruit stand but has been closed for decades.

 It is contaminated with inorganic contaminants, benzene, ethylbenzene, naphthalene, and 1,2,4-trimethylbenzene.

Grant funds also will be used to develop reuse plans and conduct community engagement activities.

-- Easton – Cleanup Grant; $500,000: Funded by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, funds will be used to clean up the Former Easton Iron & Metal Property.

The 15-acre cleanup site was initially developed in the 1800s with a lime-making kiln and quarry and later housed an automotive repair shop, a filling station, an auto salvage yard, a metal recycling facility, a salvage yard, and a junkyard.

The site is currently vacant, with access controlled and monitored by the City of Easton. It is contaminated with metals, volatile and semi-volatile organic compounds, trichloroethylene, vinyl chloride, methylene chloride, and tetrachloroethylene.

Grant funds also will be used to conduct community engagement activities.

-- Enterprise Development Center of Erie County – Cleanup Grant; $5,000,000: Funded by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, funds will be used to clean up the Former Erie Modern Industries Site and Former Quin T Site in the City of Erie.

The former Quin-T facility manufactured asbestos products, including roofing, building, and automotive materials from the mid-1800s until the early 2000s and is contaminated with polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and heavy metals.

The EMI Site is a former iron foundry and manufacturing facility that also operated as an electronics parts facility until the early 2000s and has been vacant since closure.

It is contaminated with tetrachloroethene, trichloroethene, and PCBs. PCE has also been identified in groundwater.

Grant funds also will be used to conduct community engagement activities.

-- Erie County Industrial Development Authority – Assessment Grant; $500,000: Funds will be used to update and maintain site inventory, prioritize sites, and conduct environmental site assessments.

Grant funds also will be used to develop cleanup plans and support community engagement activities.

Assessment activities will occur throughout Erie County with a focus on the Cities of Erie and Corry and the Boroughs of Lake City and Union City. Priority sites include a former coke facility, two vacant industrial sites, and two former office spaces.

-- Lackawanna County – Assessment Grant; $500,000: Funds will be used to update and expand the site inventory list, prioritize sites, and conduct environmental site assessments. Grant funds also will be used to develop cleanup plans and support community engagement activities.

Assessment activities will occur throughout the county with a focus on the Cities of Scranton and Carbondale, and the Borough of Dickson City.

Priority sites include a former silk mill, a former lumber mill, a vacant cabinet manufacturing site, and two sites consisting of mine-scarred land.

-- Lawrence County Economic Development Corporation – Assessment Grant; $500,000:

Funds will be used to update and maintain site inventory, prioritize sites, conduct environmental site assessments, develop reuse and cleanup plans, and support community engagement activities.

The target area for this grant is the City of New Castle. Priority sites include a 7-acre vacant hospital, a former drug store, a 45-acre former rare earth metals processing plant, three former manufacturing facilities, and three former disposal or landfill sites ranging from 8 to 18 acres.

-- Oil Region Alliance of Business, Industry and Tourism – Cleanup Grant; $999,730: Funded by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, grants will be used to clean up the Kraft Dahlstrom Site in the City of Oil City.

The 3.8-acre cleanup site was developed as early as 1886 and was historically used for railroad operations, lumber supplies, concrete block manufacturing, cigar manufacturing, dry cleaning, and a scrap yard. It is contaminated with heavy metals.

-- Philadelphia Authority for Industrial Development – Cleanup Grant; $2,000,000: Funded by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, funds will be used to clean up the 49th Street Terminal located at 1700 S. 49th Street.

The 0.86-acre cleanup site operated as an oil terminal from 1942 to 2006 and is currently unused. It is contaminated with petroleum and semi-volatile organic compounds. Grant funds also will be used to support community engagement activities.

-- SEDA – Council of Governments – Assessment Grant; $1,500,000: Funds will be used to conduct environmental site assessments as well as community engagement activities. Assessment activities will occur throughout the 11-county SEDA Region with a focus on Shamokin, Lock Haven, Renovo, the Borough of Lewistown, Coal Township, Milton, Mt. Carmel, and Sunbury.

Priority sites include former industrial and manufacturing sites and commercial properties and buildings, a parking lot, and parcels that have become vacant, blighted, and underutilized.

-- Urban Redevelopment Authority of Pittsburgh – Cleanup Grant; $2,000,000: Funded by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, funds will be used to clean up a 22-acre portion of the Swisshelm Park Solar Remediation Site located at Ober Street and Commercial Street.

The cleanup site was part of a larger 238-acre slag disposal site that was formerly used to dispose of slag wastes until 1972. By 1972, there were nearly 17 million cubic yards of slag piled as high as 120 feet with very steep banks. It is contaminated with heavy metals, volatile organic compounds, and semi-volatile organic compounds.

Grant funds also will be used to conduct community engagement activities.

Additional Background:

EPA has selected these organizations to receive funding to address and support the reuse of brownfield sites to address the health, economic, social, and environmental challenges caused by brownfields.

EPA anticipates making all the awards once all legal and administrative requirements are satisfied.

For more information on this program, visit EPA’s Brownfields Program webpage.

[Posted: May 20, 2024]

5/27/2024