WASHINGTON, May 10 (UPI) -- The Environmental Protection Agency Tuesday awarded a total of $75 million to 44 states to revitalize brownfield sites nationwide.
Brownfields are abandoned or under-utilized properties where the stigma of possible pollution or a lack of solid technical information has discouraged redevelopment.
The EPA said there are about 450,000 abandoned and contaminated waste sites nationwide. The federal funding is designed to help make those sites available for industrial or commercial redevelopment.
In addition, the agency noted that since the government first started funding brownfield projects in 1995, sites have converted from industrial waterfronts into riverfront parks, from landfills into golf courses, rail corridors to recreational trails, and gas station sites into housing sites.
EPA's brownfields assistance has led to more than $7 billion in public and private investment in cleanup and redevelopment, helping create more than 31,000 jobs and resulting in the assessment of more than 5,100 properties.
