EPA's Brownfields Program empowers states, communities, and other stakeholders to work together to prevent, assess, safely clean up, and sustainably reuse brownfield sites. A brownfield site is real property, the expansion, redevelopment, or reuse of which may be complicated by the presence or potential presence of a hazardous substance, pollutant, or contaminant. The Small Business Liability Relief and Brownfields Revitalization Act of 2002, as amended by the Brownfields Utilization, Investment and Local Development Act of 2018, was passed to help states and communities around the country clean up and revitalize brownfield sites. Under this law, EPA provides financial assistance to eligible applicants through five competitive grant programs: Multipurpose Grants, Assessment Grants, Revolving Loan Fund Grants, Cleanup Grants, and Job Training Grants. Additionally, funding support is provided to state and tribal response programs through a separate mechanism.
$2,000,000
EPA has selected the Ounalashka Corporation for a Brownfields Community-wide Assessment Grant for States and Tribes that will be funded by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. Grant funds will be used to conduct 24 Phase I and 15 Phase II environmental site assessments. Grant funds also will be used to prepare 18 cleanup plans, 12 site-specific reuse plans, and one area-wide reuse plan, and to create a redevelopment-focused brownfield site inventory. The target areas for this grant include Bunker Hill/Little South America, Pyramid Valley, and Strawberry Hill within the City of Unalaska, all of which were subject to intensive use by the U.S. military during World War II, and are subject to significant area-wide contamination concerns including unexploded ordinance, undocumented waste disposal areas, and widespread impacts to sediment in surface water bodies. Priority sites include sites with potentially leaking underground storage tanks, two former landfills, a former hospital, a naval radio station, a former steam plant, a former industrial maintenance building, a former powerhouse, and a site primarily used as an artillery battery.