October 15, 2010
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 18, 2010
Contact: Sonya Moste, Director of Marketing and Public Relations
Phone: 404.614.8281
City of Atlanta Awarded EPA Grant
for Brownfield Planning and Assessment
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced Friday that the City of Atlanta is one of 23 communities around the U.S. selected for award under the Brownfields Area-Wide Planning Pilot Program. The Atlanta Development Authority, together with the City of Atlanta and with assistance from the Georgia Institute of Technology, submitted a proposal to EPA in the spring of 2010.
“This grant will provide about $175,000 to assess contaminated sites in need of cleanup that are a hindrance to economic development and develop a plan,” say Charles Whatley, director of Commerce and Entrepreneurship for the Atlanta Development Authority. “It is our expectation that once a plan is in place, we will be able to apply for additional federal dollars to help with the actual remediation of these sites.”
The plan will address brownfield sites in and around three tax allocation districts: Atlanta BeltLine, Campbellton Road and Metropolitan Parkway. The focus area includes at least 25 brownfields, including a former auto service and repair shop, former heavy industrial facilities and vacant warehouses. Major sites identified for remediation include University Avenue, the Murphy Triangle and the Fort McPherson military base, scheduled to close next year. The plan will be the critical next step in coordinating community involvement around the assessment, cleanup and reuse of brownfields in the project area, helping to anchor the area’s commercial, industrial, residential and greenspace redevelopment.
EPA is promoting an area-wide planning approach to address community brownfield challenges, which recognizes that revitalization of the area surrounding a brownfield site is just as critical to the successful reuse of an individual site as assessment, cleanup and redevelopment. The pilot program will help further community-based partnership efforts within underserved or economically disadvantaged neighborhoods by confronting local environmental and public health challenges related to brownfields while creating a planning framework to advance economic development and job creation.
ABOUT THE EPA BROWNFIELDS PROGRAM
EPA’s Brownfields Program empowers states, communities and other stakeholders to work together to prevent, assess, safely clean up and sustainably reuse brownfields. A brownfield site is real property, the expansion, redevelopment or reuse of which may be complicated by the presence or potential presence of a hazardous substance, pollutant or contaminant. In 2002, the Small Business Liability Relief and Brownfields Revitalization Act was passed to help states and communities around the country clean up and revitalize brownfield sites. Under this law, EPA provides financial assistance to eligible applicants to assess and clean up brownfield sites.
ABOUT ATLANTA DEVELOPMENT AUTHORITY
The Atlanta Development Authority is the official economic development agency for the city of Atlanta. ADA represents intown Atlanta, which has a population of 530,000 and growing. ADA is a research-based economic development organization, focused on residential, business and investment growth in the city. Visit www.atlantada.com.
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