Oregon Communities to receive $2.1 million for Brownfield Cleanups

Salem—The U.S. EPA announced today that the state of Oregon and five local communities will receive more than $2.1 million in Brownfields funding to help breathe new life into contaminated properties and revitalize former industrial sites.

Business Oregon will receive $700,000 in supplemental funding for its existing Revolving Loan Fund. This funding will allow Business Oregon to continue making loans and providing grants to eligible applicants to cleanup Brownfields throughout the state of Oregon, fostering environmental and economic redevelopment.

"To succeed in brownfield redevelopment, we need truly collaborative partnerships between property owners, government and interested stakeholders," said Tim McCabe, the Director of Business Oregon. "These EPA grants will go a long way to making success a reality for all these communities."

EPA Brownfields Grants fund site assessments and site cleanups, supporting local efforts to clean up contamination or otherwise make land useable for housing, community space or commercial development. EPA also provides often cash-strapped communities a much-needed boost to bring abandoned lands back into productive use. The following Oregon communities will receive U.S. EPA Brownfields grants:

The City of Eugene will receive a $680,200 Brownfields Assessment Coalition grant that will be used to establish a coalition with the city of Springfield and Lane County to develop a Brownfields inventory and conduct environmental site assessments within their three jurisdictions.

The Northeast Oregon Economic Development District will receive a $400,000 Community-wide Assessment Grant to inventory and prioritize Brownfield sites and conduct environmental site assessments on properties located throughout Baker, Union and Wallowa counties in northeastern Oregon. This project will include community outreach and cleanup planning activities.

The City of Troutdale will receive a $200,000 grant to perform an environmental site assessment and conduct community outreach and cleanup planning activities at the Troutdale Riverfront Redevelopment property at 302 NW 257th Way. The site, which sits on the bank of the Sandy River, operated as a slaughterhouse and rendering plant from 1901 to the late 1960s.

The City of Vernonia will receive a $200,000 Community-Wide Assessment grant which will be used to inventory Brownfield sites throughout the city, perform environmental site assessments, and conduct community outreach.

Next month, the ninth Oregon Brownfields Conference will be held June 13-14 in Portland and include the presentation of awards to four outstanding brownfield cleanup projects. The conference brings together state and local officials and private sector leaders to discuss how to expand redevelopment opportunities across the state. The highlight of the first day of the meeting will be the fourth Oregon Brownfields Awards Program Luncheon held at the DoubleTree Hilton hotel in Portland.

For more information on the above projects please contact:
Eugene, Mike Sullivan, 541-682-5448
Northeast Oregon Economic Development District, Lisa Dawson, 541-426-3598
Troutdale, Doug MacCourt, 503-226-8672, or Jim Kight, 503-674-7237
Vernonia, William Haack, 503-429-5291

Business Oregon works to create, retain, expand and attract businesses that provide sustainable, living-wage jobs for Oregonians through public-private partnerships, leveraged funding, and support of economic opportunities for Oregon companies and entrepreneurs.