E.P.A. awards $1.2 million brownfields grants to 3 Arizona communities

SAN FRANCISCO - The E.P.A. announced today that the City of Phoenix, Pima County, and the City of Yuma, Ariz., are among 147 communities nationwide receiving backing to assess and clean up historically contaminated properties, also known as brownfields, for reuse and development.

"EPA is committed to helping communities strengthen their local economy and neighborhoods by cleaning up abandoned industrial and commercial properties - places where environmental cleanups and new jobs are needed most," said Jared Blumenfeld, EPA's Regional Administrator for the Pacific Southwest. "These funds will help Arizona meet its economic development goals and fostering new job growth opportunities, while protecting the environment."

Phoenix will use its $400,000 grant to target 5 industrial areas for environmental assessments. The assessments will identify properties for immediate reuse, existing community gardens, and potential sites for future gardens to enhance food security in these underserved neighborhoods. In Pima County, the $400,000 grant will be focused on Tucson's Southside, one of its oldest neighborhoods. The plan will address the economic development of the area through commercial infill and the expansion of new industries. The $400,000 grant to Yuma will allow the city to conduct assessments in Old Town South, which may have hazardous and petroleum contamination due to its historic land uses.

Since the inception of the EPA's brownfields plan in 1995, cumulative plan investments have leveraged in excess of $22 billion from a variety of public and private sources for cleanup and redevelopment activities. This equates to an average of $17.79 leveraged per E.P.A. brownfields dollar expended. These investments have resulted in approximately 105,942 jobs nationwide. EPA's brownfields plan empowers states, communities, and other stakeholders to work together to assess, safely clean up, and sustainably reuse brownfields sites.

More information on EPA's brownfields program: http://www.epa.gov/brownfields/

More information on brownfields success stories: http://www.epa.gov/brownfields/success/index.htm

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