Thirteen communities in 10 states will share more than $2.5 million in U.S. Environmental Protection Agency brownfields job training grants geared toward cleaning up contaminated properties and turning them into productive community assets.

A grant of $197,051 was awarded to the Heritage Health Foundation, Inc. in Allegheny County to train 60 students, place 45 in environmental jobs, and track graduates for one year.

HHFI plans to conduct two sequential training sessions: a six-week, 240-hour construction technician track, followed by an eight-week, 320-hour engineering technician track. Courses will include HAZWOPER, OSHA 10-hour health and safety, materials handling, confined space entry, and asbestos and lead abatement worker and inspector training.

The training program will be developed and facilitated by the Western Pennsylvania Brownfields Center at Carnegie Mellon University.

Participants will be recruited from among the low-income, unemployed and underemployed residents living in the brownfields-impacted neighborhoods of southwestern Pennsylvania’s Monongahela Valley.

HHFI will partner with the Allegheny County Housing Authority, Three Rivers Workforce Investment Board, Community College of Allegheny County, Allegheny County East Career Link, and several environmental employers and community organizations to place graduates in environmental jobs.

"The value of this brownfields grant is that it will help provide training and environmental career opportunities to residents living in the Monogahela Valley area," said Donald S. Welsh, administrator for EPA's mid-Atlantic Region. "It's important that the economic benefits derived from brownfields redevelopment remain in the affected communities."

For more information visit the Heritage Health Foundation, Inc. grant webpage.

NewsClip: Training Grant Will Benefit Region’s Brownfields

3/7/2008