Contact: Mary Mears, (212) 637-3673, mears.mary@epa.gov; John Martin, (212)
637-3662, martin.johnj@epa.gov
(New York, N.Y. – May 28, 2015) The U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency is providing $400,000 to Niagara County, New York, to assess
abandoned and contaminated properties. The funding was awarded through the
EPA’s Brownfields program, which helps communities assess, clean up and reuse
contaminated properties. Brownfields are properties with moderate contamination
which can threaten environmental quality and public health and can interfere
with redevelopment.
“Niagara County has a toxic legacy that has interfered
with future use of hundreds of properties,” said EPA Regional Administrator
Judith A. Enck. “EPA’s brownfields program and this brownfields grant will
support Niagara County’s work to protect public health and the environment
while cleaning up contaminated properties that dot the county.”
Niagara County will use a $200,000 community-wide
hazardous substance assessment grant and a $200,000 community-wide petroleum
assessment grant to determine the nature and extent of environmental
contamination at some of the county’s 338 brownfields sites. These include the
locations of former dry cleaners, chemical manufacturers, automotive repair
facilities, gas stations and other contaminated properties. The funds will also
be used to determine the public health and environmental impacts of these
sites, and to support community outreach activities.
Since the inception of the EPA’s Brownfields program in
1995, cumulative brownfield program investments have leveraged more than $21
billion from a variety of public and private sources for cleanup and
redevelopment activities. This equates to an average of nearly $18 leveraged
for every EPA brownfield dollar expended. These investments have resulted in
creating approximately 93,000 jobs nationwide. These projects demonstrate the
positive impact a small investment of federal brownfields funding can have on
community revitalization through leveraging jobs, producing clean energy, and
providing recreation opportunities for surrounding neighborhoods. The EPA’s
Brownfields Program empowers states, communities, and others to work together to
prevent, assess, safely clean up, and sustainably reuse brownfields sites.
Additional information on EPA Brownfields activities is
available at http://epa.gov/brownfields.