Salt Lake County, Utah to receive $600,000 to advance property cleanup and redevelopment
EPA Brownfields grant will advance redevelopment plans in Salt Lake County, Salt Lake City and Murray City
SALT LAKE CITY -- Today, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is announcing that Salt Lake County, Utah will receive a $600,000 Brownfields assessment grant to complete environmental assessments with coalition partners in Salt Lake City and Murray City to advance the redevelopment of several targeted Brownfields properties.
Salt Lake County is among 151 communities nationwide selected to receive 154 grant awards totaling $66.5 million in EPA Brownfields funding through the agency’s Multipurpose, Assessment, and Cleanup Grant programs This funding will support underserved and economically disadvantaged communities across the country in assessing and cleaning up contaminated and abandoned industrial and commercial properties. Approximately 50 percent of selected recipients will be receiving EPA Brownfields Grant funding for the first time and more than 85 percent are located in or serving small communities.
“Salt Lake County and its coalition partners have built a track record of success in using EPA Brownfields grants to create new economic opportunities in communities,” said Mark A. Smith, EPA Region 8 director of the Land, Chemicals, and Redevelopment Division. “This grant will help advance the redevelopment of several targeted properties and make them available for productive reuse.”
Salt Lake County will use the EPA Brownfields assessment grant with coalition partners Salt Lake City and Murray City to conduct environmental site assessments at dozens of properties, including locations at Camp Kearns, the Seven Peaks Waterpark site, the Murray City Central Business District and the Magna Main Street target areas. Priority sites include parcels at a former Army base that were formerly occupied by warehouses, mechanic shops, and light industry; a commercial water park that has been vacant since 2018 and several sites within a historic residential and commercial district.
“Salt Lake County and our Coalition partners, Murray City and Salt Lake City, are thrilled to receive another community-wide assessment grant,” said Salt Lake County Economic Development Director Jevon Gibb. “Under previous grants, we have been able assess key properties that have facilitated redevelopment and public health improvements throughout the county. We look forward to continuing our partnership with the EPA on this great program.”
“Under our current grant,” Gibb continued, “we were also able to prepare properties to utilize Salt Lake County’s EPA-funded Brownfields Revolving Loan Fund. In short, after helping identify the environmental issues, we partnered with the EPA and developers to make loans that solve the issues. This teamwork creates huge impact for our region, and we are grateful to the EPA and our coalition partners.”
The list of the fiscal year 2021 applicants selected for funding is available here: https://www.epa.gov/brownfields/applicants-selected-fy-2021-brownfields-multipurpose-assessment-and-cleanup-grants
EPA anticipates that it will award the grants once all legal and administrative requirements are satisfied by the selected recipients.
Background
Since its inception in 1995, EPA's Brownfields Program has provided nearly $1.76 billion in grants to assess and clean up contaminated properties and return them to productive reuse. This has led to significant benefits for communities across the country. For example,
- To date, communities participating in the Brownfields Program have been able to attract more than $34.4 billion in cleanup and redevelopment funding after receiving Brownfields funds. This has led to over 175,500 jobs in cleanup, construction, and redevelopment.
- Based on grant recipient reporting, recipients leveraged on average $20.13 for each EPA Brownfields dollar and 10.3 jobs per $100,000 of EPA Brownfield Grant funds expended on assessment, cleanup, and revolving loan fund cooperative agreements.
- In addition, an academic peer-reviewed study has found that residential properties near brownfield sites increased in value by 5% to 15.2% 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—2 to 7 times more than the $12.4 million EPA contributed to the cleanup of those brownfield sites.
For more on the Brownfields Grants: https://www.epa.gov/brownfields/types-epa-brownfield-grant-funding
For more on EPA’s Brownfields Program: https://www.epa.gov/brownfields