News Releases from Region 04

EPA Awards $300,000 Brownfields Assessment Grant to Tuskegee, Alabama

MONTGOMERY, Ala. (May 27, 2021) – Today, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Region 4 Acting Regional Administrator John Blevins joined state and local officials to award the City of Tuskegee, Alabama, a $300,000 Brownfields Assessment Grant.

The grant funds will be used to develop seven cleanup plans and conduct community engagement activities. The target area is the entire City of Tuskegee. Priority sites include a former oil distribution center, former hotel, and former gas station.

“EPA’s brownfields program provides critical funding to lift up and protect underserved and overburdened communities,” said John Blevins, EPA Region 4 Acting Regional Administrator.” “We commend the City of Tuskegee for your efforts to address and improve the environmental, public health, economic and social impacts associated with contaminated and abandoned sites, and we look forward to seeing the fruits of this partnership.”

“I want to express the Alabama Department of Environmental Management’s (ADEM) appreciation to EPA for again assisting communities in Alabama in rehabilitating once- contaminated sites so they can be put to productive use,” ADEM Director Lance LeFleur said. “This partnership has provided many millions of dollars over the years to transform brownfields across the state. In the truest form, these are both environmental and economic development projects, providing a cleaner environment and creating jobs. We congratulate the City of Tuskegee and pledge our continued support in assessing and cleaning up multiple brownfield sites across the city.”

We are very pleased and thankful that the U. S. Environmental Protection Agency has selected historic Tuskegee, Alabama to be the recipient of a Brownfields Assessment Grant to enable us to perform assessments and economic development plans for sites that have been previously identified as contaminated and not suitable for development.  We recognize this as a major step in initiating reinvestment in critical sites in our community and express our appreciation to the Biden Administration for its commitment to address such challenges facing a number of our cities and communities, said Lawrence “Tony” Haygood, Mayor of Tuskegee, Alabama.

The EPA previously announced the selection of three projects in Alabama for Brownfields grants totaling $1,500,000. This funding will support underserved and economically disadvantaged communities in assessing and cleaning up contaminated and abandoned industrial and commercial properties.

Background

Nationally, EPA selected 151 communities to receive 154 grant awards totaling $66.5 million in Brownfields funding through its Multipurpose, Assessment, and Cleanup (MAC) Grants. 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 serve small communities. In the southeast, 37 grants totaling over $14 million will go to organizations or communities across the eight southeastern states of Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee. 

The list of the fiscal year 2021 applicants selected for funding is available here: https://www.epa.govhttps://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.