Kentucky Brownfield projects awarded EPA grants

Six grants awarded to three projects

FRANKFORT, Ky. (June 10, 2016) — The Kentucky Department for Environmental Protection’s (DEP) Brownfield Redevelopment Program announced that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has selected three projects to receive a total of six grants in Kentucky for brownfield community-wide assessments.

Over the past 11 years, with the help of the Kentucky Brownfields Redevelopment Program, Kentucky communities have received $12.9 million in EPA brownfields grants to help assess and remediate the estimated 8,000 brownfield properties in Kentucky. The Kentucky Brownfields Redevelopment Program offers assessment and grant review services, technical assistance and brownfields grant writing education to those communities and organizations that wish to revitalize properties with an environmental past.

Brownfields are properties that are abandoned or underutilized due to contamination or the perception of contamination. They can include old factories, abandoned hospitals, old schools, former service stations and mine-scarred lands.

Grants awarded to Kentucky communities are:

• Kentucky River Area Development District (KRADD), $400,000 Community-wide Assessment Grants: Community-wide hazardous substances and petroleum grant funds will be used to conduct 17 Phase I and nine Phase II environmental site assessments, and prepare up to eight cleanup plans. Grant funds also will be used to inventory sites, including abandoned coal mines and conduct community outreach activities.

• Shelbyville, $400,000 Community-wide Assessment Grants: Community-wide hazardous substances grant funds will be used to conduct six Phase I and five Phase II environmental site assessments, and prepare two cleanup plans. Community-wide petroleum grant funds will be used to conduct five Phase I and five Phase II environmental site assessments, and prepare two cleanup plans. Grant funds of both types also will be used to inventory sites, evaluate institutional controls and support community outreach activities.

• Kentucky Department for Environmental Protection, $400,000 Communitywide Assessment Grants: Community-wide hazardous substances grant funds will be used to conduct 16 Phase I and eight Phase II environmental site assessments. Grant funds also will be used to support community outreach activities. Community-wide petroleum funds will be used to conduct the same tasks at sites with potential petroleum contamination.