EPA News Release (Region 3): EPA Announces $200,000 Brownfields Grant To Help Assess South Wilmington Wetlands

 

Contact: David Sternberg sternberg.david@epa.gov, 215-814-5548

EPA Announces $200,000 Brownfields Grant  To Help Assess South Wilmington Wetlands

 

PHILADELPHIA (May 8, 2009) -- The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced today that the Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control will receive a $200,000 EPA general brownfields grant to help clean up wetlands in South Wilmington.

 

"Brownfields initiatives demonstrate how environmental protection and economic development work hand-in-hand," said William C. Early, acting regional administrator for EPA's mid-Atlantic region.  "Along with generating jobs, this grant will help the city of Wilmington reclaim property that has been unused for years and turn those sites into assets for the community, the environment, and the economy,"

 

This grant will be used to be used to assess four to six parcels of land in a 27-acre area known as the South Wilmington Wetlands that has been polluted from wastes disposed by nearby industries. Through the assessment, DNREC will identify contaminated areas and address related environmental and human health concerns.

 

Brownfieldgrants help to assess, clean and redevelop abandoned, contaminated properties known as brownfields.  Brownfields are sites where expansion, redevelopment, or reuse may be complicated by the presence or potential presence of a hazardous substance, pollutant, or contaminant. In addition, the Small Business Liability Relief and Brownfields Revitalization Act of 2002 expanded the definition of a brownfield to include mine-scarred lands or sites contaminated by petroleum or the manufacture of illegal drugs.  Grant recipients are selected through a national competition.

           

The Brownfields Program encourages cleanup and redevelopment of America’s estimated 450,000 brownfields sites.  Since the beginning of the Brownfields Program, EPA has awarded 1449 assessment grants totaling over $337.3 million, 242 revolving loan fund grants totaling over $233.4 million, and 534 cleanup grants totaling $93.3 million.

 

For additional information on the EPA Region 3 brownfields program, visit http://www.epa.gov/reg3hwmd/bf-lr/ .

Information on the national EPA Brownfields Program, including brownfields activities under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, is also available at http://www.epa.gov/brownfields/.

 

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