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EPA Selects Albany and Chautauqua Counties and Haverstraw in New York for National Brownfields Pilot Project Grants; Utica Will Get $150,000 to Boost Site Assessment Efforts

Release Date: 04/20/2001
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(#01043) New York, New York -- The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) today selected Albany and Chautauqua Counties for $200,000 grants and the village of Haverstraw for a $250,000 grant to begin Brownfields Assessment Demonstration Pilots. The city of Utica was selected for a Brownfields Supplemental Assistance grant of $150,000. EPA Administrator Christie Whitman made the announcement at the White House today. The winners of the pilot grants will use the money to identify and assess contaminated sites that they plan to clean up and redevelop. The Supplemental Assistance grant to the city of Utica will be used to support the municipality's site assessment efforts. The money will be awarded after EPA and the recipients work out the terms of the grant agreements, a process that should be completed in a few months. These grants are part of a national program administrated by EPA. The goal of EPA=s national Brownfields Economic Redevelopment Initiative is to restore industrial and commercial properties where expansion or redevelopment is complicated by real or perceived environmental contamination. The Brownfields program represents an opportunity to return these properties to productivity and helps make these sites clean, job-creating, profit-producing assets once more. By re-using brownfields, communities can help preserve their greenfields -- open areas that have never been developed. Idle manufacturing sites are a major problem for upstate New York and contribute to the lagging economy in some areas. The village of Haverstraw has plans to redevelop three abandoned industrial sites along the village's Hudson River waterfront, which was once the brick-making capital of the world. See EPA Headquarters press release and fact sheets for details on the specific grants and the revolving loan fund.