PHILADELPHIA (May 20, 2024) – Today, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced $7.38 million in grant awards from President Biden’s Investing in America agenda to expedite the assessment and cleanup of brownfield sites in West Virginia. 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.
EPA selected seven communities across the Mountain State to receive competitive EPA Brownfields funding through the Multipurpose, Assessment, and Cleanup (MAC) Grant programs.
“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.”
“Today’s announcement invests more than $26,000,000 across the mid-Atlantic to support the revitalization of brownfields,” said EPA Mid-Atlantic Regional Administrator Adam Ortiz. “This funding will help assess and cleanup contamination, create jobs by returning idle properties to productive reuse, and continue our progress toward a healthy and safe environment for all Americans.”
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 brownfields cleanup and redevelopment projects.
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 Revolving Loan Fund (RLF) Supplemental Grants applicants selected to receive funding proposed to work in areas that include disadvantaged communities.
West Virginia Funding Breakdown: Brownfields Multipurpose, Assessment, and Cleanup (MAC) Grant Program Selection
The following organizations in West Virginia have been selected to receive EPA Brownfields funding through the Multipurpose, Assessment, and Cleanup (MAC) Grant Programs.
· Belomar Regional Council has been selected to receive $1,500,000. The Belomar Regional Council, along with Wheeling Heritage and the Belmont County Port Authority, will inventory sites, conduct over 30 environmental site assessments, and support community engagement and planning efforts. Priority sites include a 60-acre property that houses an abandoned gas station, a 52-acre former steel mill, and a 60-acre site that housed a vineyard and later a public housing development.
· Huntington Area Development Council has been selected to receive $382,491. Grant funds will be used to clean up a 7.2-acre site that was once used for railroad activities from 1900 through the early 1970s and later as a practice field (Huntington East Practice Field ) for high school and college sports teams until 2018. The site is contaminated with volatile organic compounds and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons.
· The City of Morgantown has been selected to receive $1,999,062. Grant funds will be used to clean up the White Park Woodlands, which is currently managed as a wooded trail network in a city park. The 100-acre cleanup site was once operated as a crude oil tank farm and is contaminated with metals and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons.
· New River Gorge Regional Development Authority has been selected to receive $500,000. Grant funds will be used to clean up the former Rainelle Dump located on Snake Island Road in the Town of Rainelle. The 4.8-acre cleanup site once operated as a municipal dump and closed in the 1970s. It is contaminated with heavy metals and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons.
· Raleigh County Parks and Recreation Authority has been selected to receive $2,000,000. Grant funds will be used to clean up almost ten miles of the Clear Fork Rail Trail in the Town of Whitesville. The trail was used as a railroad bed for the coal industry. It is contaminated with heavy metals and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons associated with creosote and herbicides used for railroad maintenance.
· Region 1 Planning and Development Council has been selected to receive $500,000. Grant funds will be used to conduct 19 environmental site assessments, planning activities for cleanups and regional development, and support community engagement activities. The target area for this grant is six counties in the southeast corner of West Virginia with a focus on the City of Bluefield, the Town of Mullens, and the Town of Kimball. Priority sites include a 1-acre abandoned warehouse and two vacant hotels.
· The City of Wheeling has been selected to receive $500,000. Grant funds will be used to clean up the 140,511-square-foot Clay School building, a four-story structure that was used as a high school from 1953 to the 1990s and which is currently unused. It is contaminated with inorganic contaminants and other hazardous substances.
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 announced today once all legal and administrative requirements are satisfied.
EPA’s Brownfields Program began in 1995 and has provided nearly $2.7 billion in Brownfield Grants to assess and clean up contaminated properties and return blighted properties to productive reuse. Prior to the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, this program made approximately $60 million available each year. Thanks to the President’s historic investments in America through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, EPA has now increased that yearly investment nearly 400 percent. More than half of the funding available for this grant cycle (approximately $160 million) comes from the historic $1.5 billion investment from President Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. This investment has also allowed the MAC grants’ maximum award amounts to increase significantly from $500,000 to a new maximum of $5 million per award.
For more information on EPA’s Brownfields Program: https://www.epa.gov/brownfields