The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced more than $8 million from President Biden’s Investing in America Agenda to expedite the assessment and cleanup of brownfield sites in Indiana while advancing environmental justice.
EPA selected eight communities in Indiana to receive eight grants totaling $5,066,000 in competitive EPA Brownfields funding through the Multipurpose, Assessment, Revolving Loan Fund, and Cleanup (MARC) Grant programs. Thanks to the historic boost from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, this is the largest ever funding awarded in the history of the EPA’s Brownfields MARC Grant programs. In addition, the agency is announcing $3 million in non-competitive supplemental funding to one successful existing Revolving Loan Fund (RLF) Grant program in Indiana to help expedite its continued work by extending the program’s capacity to provide more funding for additional cleanups.
- EPA has selected the City of Logansport for a $400,000 community-wide grant to conduct 11 Phase I and eight to ten Phase II environmental site assessments. Grant funds also will be used to prepare five to ten cleanup plans and support community engagement activities including public meetings. Priority sites in western and eastern Logansport target area include a former battery plant, a former tire factory, a former industrial warehouse, a former Sears Auto, and a former retail site.
“The City of Logansport is pleased to be the recipient of this grant and we are grateful for our partnership with the EPA and our combined commitment to environmental cleanup and responsibility in our great community,” said Logansport Mayor Chris Martin. “These funds will help us to continue the progress we have made and will allow for the redevelopment of some of the long-neglected areas throughout our city. Brownfield revitalization is a key for our administration and for the future of Logansport.”
These investments are part of President Biden’s Investing in America Agenda to grow the American economy from the bottom up and middle-out – from rebuilding our nation’s infrastructure, to driving over $470 billion in private sector manufacturing and clean energy investments in the United States, to creating a manufacturing and innovation boom powered by good paying jobs that don’t require a four-year degree, to building a clean-energy economy that will combat climate change and make our communities more resilient.
“We’re working across the country to revitalize what were once dangerous and polluted sites in overburdened communities into more sustainable and environmentally just places that serve as community assets. Thanks to President Biden’s historic investments in America, we’re moving further and faster than ever before to clean up contaminated sites, spur economic redevelopment, and deliver relief that so many communities have been waiting for,” said EPA Administrator Michael S. Regan. “This critical wave of investments is the largest in Brownfields history and will accelerate our work to protect the people and the planet by transforming what was once blight into might.”
Read the full press release from the United States Environmental Protection Agency here.