The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced $150,000 in supplemental funding to help clean up contaminated Brownfields properties In North Carolina.
The Revolving Loan Funds (RLF) will help the Land-of-Sky Regional Council carry out cleanup and redevelopment projects that are expected to create jobs while utilizing unique financing mechanisms and partnerships to protect people’s health and the environment.
“These funds, awarded to grantees who have already achieved success in their work to clean up and redevelop brownfields, will help spur economic development, create local jobs and encourage public, private and non-profit collaboration in expediting Brownfield projects in distressed communities,” said Mathy Stanislaus, assistant administrator for EPA’s Office of Solid Waste and Emergency Response. “The RLF supplemental recipients are some of the nation’s top performers. Collectively, these grantees have already leveraged more than $340 million in cleanup and redevelopment investment – the RLF funding today will help sustain that incredible progress.”
Revolving loan funds specifically supply funding for grant recipients to provide loans and sub-grants to carry out cleanup activities at brownfield sites. When these loans are repaid, the loan amount and any interest is then returned to the fund and subgranted or re-loaned to other borrowers, providing an ongoing source of capital for brownfields cleanup. The supplemental grants range in funding from about $200,000 to $500,000 with an average grant award of $350,000.
There are an estimated 450,000 abandoned and contaminated sites in the United States. EPA’s Brownfields program targets these sites to encourage redevelopment, and help to provide the opportunity for productive community use of contaminated properties. EPA’s Brownfields investments overall have leveraged more than $21 billion in cleanup and redevelopment funding from public and private sources and on average, $17.79 is leveraged for every EPA Brownfields grant dollar spent.
The funds have enabled the support of 97,500 jobs in cleanup, construction and redevelopment.
More information on EPA’s Brownfields program: http://www.epa.gov/brownfields/
More information on Brownfields Revolving Loan Fund grants: http://www.epa.gov/brownfields/rlflst.htm