U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Region 7 - 11201 Renner Blvd., Lenexa, KS 66219
Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, and Nine Tribal Nations
Contact Information: Shannan Beisser, 816-520-1949, beisser.shannan@epa.gov
LENEXA, KAN. (SEPT. 30, 2022) – Today, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Region 7 Administrator Meg McCollister presented a novelty big check totaling $400,000 to the city of Denison, Iowa, to celebrate their Brownfields grant.
The city hosted the event at Washington Park. McCollister was joined by Denison Mayor Pam Soseman, City Manager Bradley Hanson, regional leaders, and community members.
Denison was selected for community-wide assessment work and the development of reuse plans for sites including the Denison Municipal Utility Power Plant and Avenue C sites. This grant also supports the creation of a project website and Spanish translation services for outreach activities.
“EPA Region 7 is proud to celebrate Denison’s first-ever Brownfields grant,” said McCollister. “The Brownfields Program has a proven record of empowering communities, and we are excited for Denison to put this Bipartisan Infrastructure Law funding to work for their own unique reuse and revitalization needs.”
“On behalf of the city of Denison, I am extremely excited and grateful that the community will be partnering with the EPA on a Brownfields Assessment Grant to help us clean up key areas of our community,” said Soseman. “This will further our ability to revitalize vacant areas into usable spaces.”
The grant is supported by President Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, which provides a total of $1.5 billion to advance environmental justice, spur economic revitalization, and create jobs by cleaning up contaminated, polluted, or hazardous brownfield properties.
After the grant award event, EPA invited Denison community members to meet with McCollister at a community listening session to discuss their thoughts on public health and the environment.
Background
Brownfield projects can range from cleaning up buildings with asbestos or lead contamination to assessing and cleaning up abandoned properties that once managed dangerous chemicals. Once cleaned up, former brownfield properties can be redeveloped into productive uses such as grocery stores, affordable housing, health centers, museums, parks, and solar farms.
The Brownfields Program advances President Biden’s Justice40 Initiative, which aims to deliver at least 40% of the benefits of certain government programs to disadvantaged communities. Approximately 86% of the communities selected to receive funding as part of today’s announcement have proposed projects in historically underserved areas.
Since its inception in 1995, EPA’s investments in brownfield sites have leveraged over $35 billion in cleanup and redevelopment. This has led to significant benefits for communities across the country. For example:
- To date, this funding has led to over 183,000 jobs in cleanup, construction, and redevelopment and over 9,500 properties have been made ready for reuse.
- Based on grant recipient reporting, recipients leveraged on average $20.43 for each EPA Brownfields dollar and 10.3 jobs per $100,000 of EPA Brownfields grant funds expended on assessment, cleanup, and revolving loan fund cooperative agreements.
- In addition, an academic peer-reviewed study found that residential properties near brownfield sites increased in value by 5% to 15% as a result of cleanup activities.
- Finally, analyzing data near 48 brownfields, EPA found an estimated $29 million to $97 million in additional tax revenue for local governments in a single year after cleanup – two to seven times more than the $12.4 million EPA contributed to the cleanup of those brownfield sites.
For more on Brownfields grants, visit: www.epa.gov/brownfields/types-epa-brownfield-grant-funding.
For more on EPA’s Brownfields Program, visit: www.epa.gov/brownfields.
# # #
Learn more about EPA Region 7: www.epa.gov/aboutepa/epa-region-7-midwest