While the nation continues to struggle through record unemployment, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is looking for ways to continue to improve our environment while helping put Americans back to work. One approach is its popular Brownfields Program, which provides grants and technical assistance to communities to assess, safely clean up, and sustainably reuse contaminated properties.
If you’re not familiar with the term, EPA defines a brownfield as “a property for which the expansion, redevelopment or reuse may be complicated by the presence, or potential presence, of a hazardous substance, pollutant or contaminant.” It estimates that there are more than 450,000 brownfields in the United States today.
Last week, EPA announced the selection of 151 communities to receive Brownfields grants totaling over $65.6 million. In addition to helping restore neglected land in those communities, it will hasten local economic recovery and job creation.
After a series of pilot programs in the 1990s proved to be an overwhelming success—both financially and environmentally—Republican President George W. Bush signed the Small Business Liability Relief and Brownfields Revitalization Act into law in 2002.
The Brownfields Program has yielded many well documented economic benefits. The EPA estimates grants through the program have supported 160,300 jobs. A 2017 study examining 48 sites concluded that cleaning up brownfields resulted in nearby residential property value increasing by as much as 15 percent. Another study of those sites reported between $29 and $97 million in additional tax revenue for local governments in a single year after cleanup, which amounts to a return of at least double the original EPA investment. Even a cursory cost-benefit analysis of the program should be very appealing to fiscal conservatives.
There are also anecdotal surveys that suggest revitalizing brownfields helps reduce crime in the surrounding areas.
Brownfields grant applications are usually led by local stakeholders, including private developers, local governments, or through public-private partnerships. In fact, program funds often attract investors to finance brownfield site purchase and pay for site assessment, site cleanup, and other redevelopment activities. Ultimately, the goal is to turn brownfields into “greenfields,” spaces redeveloped for uses ranging from housing, retail, industrial, or mixed-use to public and non-profit uses such as parks, recreational areas, and municipal facilities.
Stakeholders interested in applying for these funds to benefit their community can get started by taking a look at the most recent Brownfields Federal Programs Guide.