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EPA Selects 147 Communities for New Brownfield Grants, Announces Job Training Grants Recipients

In May, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced recipients for brownfields investment grants and environmental training grants for Fiscal Year 2015 (FY15).  These grants signal areas where communities may see future development as well as identify sources for job training and recruitment in many fields of interest for general and specialty construction firms.

Brownfields Investment

According to EPA, 147 communities will receive 243 grants totaling $54.3 million in brownfields funding to clean and redevelop contaminated properties, boost local economies and leverage jobs.  For FY15, among the communities selected for funding, more than thirty percent have been affected by plant closures, forty percent by significant economic disruptions, and forty-two percent by adverse natural disasters.  In addition, more than fifty-five percent of the communities selected are cities and towns with populations of 100,000 or less, of which forty-four percent are very small rural communities with populations of 10,000 or less.

Highlighted projects for FY15 include San Antonio, Texas, to restore urban waterways, attract commercial development, construct new multifamily housing, and sustainably reuse existing buildings; Palatka, Florida, to support downtown and riverfront redevelopment plans; and Lower Brule Sioux Tribe in South Dakota to clean a contaminated site and relocate their local Boys & Girls Club.  Other grants include $17 million to applicants who are also HUD-DOT-EPA grant recipient communities to clean up and reuse brownfield sites, for example, $500,000 will go to support development of a transportation corridor in Clark County, Nevada.

Environmental Training

In addition, $3.6 million in FY15 grants will be distributed to 19 communities for Environmental Workforce Development and Job Training (EWDJT).  The EWDJT grants fund training programs in local nonprofit organizations, community colleges, cities, states, tribes, and counties that provide unemployed and under-employed with the comprehensive skills and certifications needed to enter full-time careers in the environmental field.  The funding also supports job placement and recruitment activities. 

Since EWDJT’s inception in 1998, “more than 13,900 individuals have completed training, and of those, more than 10,000 have secured employment in the environmental field,” according to EPA.  Graduates obtain employment in fields such as recycling, brownfields assessment and cleanup, wastewater treatment, stormwater management, emergency response, oil spill cleanup, solar installation, and Superfund site remediation.  These skills would be helpful for many construction firms, especially if a firm is located near one of the grantees training programs.  

The EWDJT FY15 grantees are:

  • Zender Environmental Health and Research Group (Anchorage) Alaska
  • Fresno Area Workforce Investment Board, Calif.
  • City of Richmond, Calif.
  • Denver Indian Center, Inc., Colo.
  • West End Neighborhood House (Wilmington) Del.
  • Florida State College at Jacksonville, Fla.
  • OAI, Inc. (Chicago) Ill.
  • Merrimack Valley Workforce Investment Board (Lawrence) Mass.
  • St. Louis Community College, Mo.
  • CLIMB Community Development Corporation (Biloxi) Miss.
  • The Fortune Society, Inc. (Long Island City) N.Y.
  • Rose State College (Midwest City) Okla.
  • Oregon Tradeswomen (Portland) Ore.
  • PathStone Corporation, P.R.
  • Tarrant County College District, Texas
  • Great Lakes Community Conservation Corps (Racine) Wisc.
  • Milwaukee Area Workforce Investment Board, Wisc.
  • Coalfield Development Corporation (Wayne County) W.Va.
  • Groundwork Providence, R.I.

More Information

For more information on brownfields grants by state or type of grant: http://cfpub.epa.gov/bf_factsheets/.  To learn more about EPA’s brownfields: