Northeast Ohio projects get Brownfields money from U.S. Environmental Protection Agency

WASHINGTON, D. C. — The U.S. Environmental Safety Company on Thursday awarded Northeast Ohio Areawide Coordinating Company a $1 million Brownfields Revolving Mortgage Fund Coalition Grant to pay for air pollution cleanup in areas that embrace Cleveland, Lorain Middlefield, Chippewa Lake and Ashtabula Township.

“With at the moment’s announcement, we’re turning blight into would possibly for communities throughout America,” EPA Administrator Michael S. Regan stated in an announcement, including that the funding got here from the bipartisan infrastructure invoice adopted final 12 months.

U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown stated that redeveloping previously contaminated websites could be an “alternative for brand new development for communities throughout Ohio.”

EPA stated precedence websites for the cash embrace the previous Chippewa Lake amusement park, a 1,000-acre Ashtabula Lakefront property, a former rubber processor and a former foundry and heavy steel processing website.

“EPA’s Brownfields grants are an awesome funding in Ohio’s future,” EPA Area 5 Administrator Debra Shore stated in an announcement. “Top-of-the-line methods we will construct again higher in Ohio is by revitalizing unused and contaminated properties and returning them to productive functions in communities throughout the state.”

EPA may even give Lorain Port Authority a separate $500,000 Brownfields Evaluation Grant that it may use to replace its stock of brownfields websites and develop cleanup and reuse plans. Targets for the grant embrace 1,500-acres that embody a whole bunch of acres of vacant and underutilized former industrial properties alongside the Lake Erie waterfront, EPA stated.

An announcement from U.S. Rep. Shontel Brown stated the cash could be used to scrub up contaminated websites, disproportionately positioned in Black neighborhoods, which might be sources of blight and air pollution.

“Restoring the commercial and industrial properties which have lengthy suffered from hazardous contamination isn’t solely good for the setting, it’s good for the financial system and neighborhoods,” Toledo Democratic Rep. Marcy Kaptur stated. “Because of the bipartisan Jobs and Infrastructure Invoice, we’re rising our investments to breathe new life into the vacant and run-down websites that may home the businesses and good-paying jobs of tomorrow.”