County awarded $400,000 Brownfield Grant
June 15, 2004 - WASHINGTON, DC - Congressman Fred Upton (R- St. Joseph) Tuesday announced that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has awarded a $400,000 grant to the St. Joseph County Economic Development Corporation to assess potential brownfield sites throughout the county. The EPA awarded communities in 42 states and Puerto Rico more than $75 million in EPA Brownfield grants to help revitalize former industrial and commercial sites, turning them from problem properties to productive community use. Communities throughout Michigan were awarded a total of $7.05 million. "This is great news for St. Joseph County," said Upton. "This $400,000 will allow local officials to begin examining available opportunities to turn around areas that were once thought to be lost to contamination. The benefits of the brownfields program are twofold - they help clean up the environment while also putting folks to work. This grant is a win, win for St. Joseph County - no question about it." For St. Joseph County, the EPA designated $200,000 to assess sites for hazardous substances and $200,000 to assess local areas for petroleum contamination. The funds will be used to conduct community outreach, perform site assessments, and draft redevelopment plans for sites around the county.
