$500,000.00
EPA has selected Groundwork Richmond Virginia for a Brownfields Job Training Grant. Groundwork Richmond Virginia plans to train 64 students and place 35 in environmental jobs. The training program includes 171 hours of instructional training, as detailed in the chart below. Students who complete the training will earn up to two federal certifications. Groundwork Richmond Virginia is targeting students within the City of Richmond, with a focus on disadvantaged and overburdened communities as identified by the White House's Climate and Economic Justice Screening Tool. Key partners include the Alliance for the Chesapeake Bay, Arborscapes, LLC, the Center for Watershed Protection, the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, Davey Trees, Groundwork USA, the City of Richmond (RVA) Department of Parks and Recreation, RVA Office of Community Wealth Building, RVA Office of Sustainability, VHB Engineering, the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality: Brownfields, and the Virginia Department of Forestry.
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EPA's Brownfields Program empowers states, Tribal Nations, communities, and other stakeholders to work together to prevent, assess, safely clean up, and sustainably reuse brownfields. 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, Tribal Nations, 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 Brownfields Job Training Grants. Additionally, funding support is provided to state and tribal response programs through a separate mechanism.
Brownfields Job Training Grant funds are provided to nonprofit organizations and other eligible entities to recruit and train unemployed and underemployed residents from communities affected by environmental pollution, economic disinvestment, and brownfields and place them in environmental jobs. Since the program was created in 1998, EPA has awarded 430 job training grants totaling over $113.1 million through Brownfield Job Training Programs. With these grants, approximately 23,460 individuals have completed training and over 17,450 individuals have been placed in careers related to land remediation and environmental health and safety. This equates to a cumulative placement rate of approximately 74 percent. The average starting wage for these jobs over the last five years is approximately $23 an hour.