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.
$1,500,000
EPA has selected Cameron County to lead a Brownfields Assessment Coalition Grant. Community-wide grant funds will be used to inventory sites and conduct 22 Phase I and 16 Phase II environmental site assessments. Grant funds also will be used to develop eight cleanup plans and six reuse plans, and support area-wide planning and community engagement activities. Assessment activities will occur throughout the North Central Region of Pennsylvania with a focus on Cameron, Clearfield, and Potter Counties. Priority sites include an abandoned and vacant lumber yard, a property historically used for manufacturing munitions, a former dump site, and a 17-acre former paper mill with numerous stone, brick, and concrete structures and ruins created when a dam broke in 1911. Priority sites range in size from 0.1 to 91 acres. Non-lead coalition members include the Borough of Emporium, the North Central Pennsylvania Regional Planning and Development Commission, and the Northern Tier Community Action Corporation.