Gering Receives Federal Aid to Conduct Environmental Assessments
June 5, 2014 -- U.S. EPA Region 7 has announced that the City of Gering is one of six regional recipients of funding to assess, clean up and plan for the redevelopment of contaminated properties. Gering was awarded $200,000 through the EPA’s Brownfields Assessment, Revolving Loan Fund and Cleanup grants program.
The funds will be used to conduct 14 Phase I and six Phase II environmental site assessments for hazardous substances, engage in cleanup planning for four sites, and perform community outreach in the area. The focus is on an area known as the 10th Street corridor. The Nebraska Department of Environmental Quality has been involved with the city in assessing the area for potential redevelopment, and this information has been coordinated with the U.S. EPA.
Brownfields are defined as those properties whose expansion, redevelopment, or reuse may be complicated by the presence or potential presence of a hazardous substance, pollutant, or contaminant. Brownfields sites include residential, commercial and industrial properties. Cleaning up and reinvesting in these properties increases local tax bases, facilitates job growth, utilizes existing infrastructure, takes development pressures off of undeveloped, open land, and both improves and protects the environment.
EPA’s Brownfields Program empowers states, communities, and other stakeholders to work together to prevent, assess, safely clean up, and sustainably reuse brownfields sites. NDEQ’s role has been to provide assistance to communities in evaluating potential Brownfields sites and work toward successful resolution of contaminated sites for future redevelopment. For more information about NDEQ’s Brownfields and Voluntary Cleanup programs, contact NDEQ.VCPBrownfields@nebraska.gov, or call (402) 471-6411.
The press release below from EPA Region VII (Nebraska, Kansas, Missouri and Iowa) provides more information about the six 2014 Brownfield funding recipients in the region.
(See attached file: Brownfields ARC Grants PR 05 28 14.pdf)
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