[StBernard] [r6news] EPA awards New Orleans $1 million for community cleanup projects

[Westley Annis]

State to receive total of $1.4 million in brownfields grants to support
revitalization efforts

(Dallas, Texas – July 19, 2007)  The Environmental Protection Agency has
awarded $1 million in brownfields funding to the City of New Orleans to
help revitalize three abandoned wharfs along Market, Celeste and Orange
Streets.

Brownfields are vacant, abandoned, or under-used properties where
redevelopment may be complicated by the presence or potential presence
of environmental contamination.  City leaders plan to use the
brownfields grant to redevelop the wharfs as part of the proposed
Riverfront Park project.

“The brownfields program is the bedrock of EPA efforts to cleanup and
reuse the nation’s contaminated properties,” said EPA Regional
Administrator Richard E. Greene. “With these brownfields grants,
Louisiana is helping pave the way toward cleaner communities and better
lives.”

In addition to the New Orleans grant, EPA also awarded a $200,000
brownfields cleanup grant to the Progressive Church in Marrero.  The
church is completing cleanup of a 20-acre site that it plans to
redevelop into a Family Life Center, school, day care facility, and
affordable housing center for seniors.

Earlier this year, EPA also awarded another $200,000 brownfields
petroleum assessment grant to the City of Lake Charles to revitalize
portions of downtown, the Charpentier District and the North Lake
Charles area.

Since the beginning of the program in 1995, EPA Region 6 has provided
more than $11 million for Louisiana brownfields projects, including:
* $5.9 million for assessments,
* $3.85 million for revolving loan funds,
* $1.69 million for cleanups, and
* Approximately $400,000 for job training.

EPA’s brownfields program encourages redevelopment of America's
estimated 450,000 abandoned and contaminated waste sites.  Nationally,
brownfields assistance has leveraged more than $9.8 billion in cleanup
and redevelopment, helped create more than 43,900 jobs and resulted in
the assessment of more than 11,500 properties and the cleanup of 180
properties.  EPA Region 6 accounts for 25 percent, or $2 billion, of the
funding leveraged across the nation.

Additional information on the brownfields recipients is available at
http://www.epa.gov/brownfields.

To learn more about activities in EPA Region 6, please visit
www.epa.gov/region6.