Tag: medical incinerator

EPA Announces $600,000 to City of Tulsa, Oklahoma Dept. of Environmental Quality for Additional Clean Up and Reuse of Brownfield Sites

Funds are part of $6.9 million awarded nationwide

Media contacts: Jennah Durant or Joe Hubbard, [email protected] or 214 665-2200

DALLAS – (June 10, 2020)  Today, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced the city of Tulsa and the Oklahoma Department of Environmental Quality (ODEQ) will receive $300,000 each in Brownfields Revolving Loan Fund grants. The grants are part of $6.9 million in supplemental funding EPA is providing for 25 current successful Brownfields Revolving Loan Fund (Revolving Loan) grantees. The city of Tulsa’s grant will focus on asbestos cleanup at the Tulsa Honor Academy campus, and ODEQ will use their funding for oversight and for sub-grants to the city of Tulsa and other recipients.

 “Some of the best examples of the transformative power of Brownfields funding can be found in Tulsa and across Oklahoma,” said Regional Administrator Ken McQueen. “I know our state and local partners in Oklahoma will continue leveraging these funds to revive contaminated properties and uplift communities and the economy.”

“I am glad to see the EPA award both the Oklahoma Department of Environmental Quality and the City of Tulsa with a $300,000 Brownfields grant today. The Brownfields program continues to strengthen our communities in Oklahoma and across the nation,” said Senator James Inhofe. “These grants help communities transform formerly unusable sites into thriving businesses, like the Mayo Hotel in Tulsa or Bricktown in Oklahoma City, allowing for economic growth and revitalization of our local economies, which is especially important as we continue to battle this global pandemic. I am glad to have had a part in this by authoring and ensuring passage of the bill reauthorizing the Brownfields program in 2018 and I look forward to seeing what new opportunities these sites will bring.”

“I am glad to see that my state, and my hometown, have been awarded these grants by the Trump administration to help revitalize our local economies. I support the innovative nature of these grants, and I am excited to see how American ingenuity is maximized by these resources,” said Congressman Kevin Hern (OK-01). “Hard earned tax dollars will be used to turn property that was otherwise useless, to be clean and safe properties that provide more opportunity for economic growth that moves us all forward to a brighter future.”  

“The Brownfields program has helped Oklahoma by transforming once-vacant properties into community assets, especially for many under-resourced neighborhoods,” said Congresswoman Kendra Horn (OK-5). “As we face the COVID-19 crisis, protecting public health and restoring jobs in our community are more important than ever. This federal funding will provide a safer environment and facilitate job growth for Oklahomans.”

“We appreciate the EPA’s continued federal investment in the City of Tulsa’s brownfields program,” said Tulsa Mayor G.T. Bynum. “Tulsa has used brownfields grants since 1995 in more than 100 public and private redevelopment projects. This additional supplemental funding brings the total EPA brownfields investment in Tulsa to more than $3 million, which has helped drive nearly $200 million in public and private development. Adding to our Brownfield Revolving Loan Fund, this grant will allow us to keep assisting brownfield property owners who need environmental cleanups as they redevelop these properties and contribute to economic growth in Tulsa.”

“We are excited to have received the Brownfields Revolving Loan Fund Grant. This funding will help DEQ continue its mission of cleaning up and revitalizing areas with historic environmental contamination,” said Oklahoma DEQ Executive Director Scott Thompson. “Over the years, Oklahoma’s Brownfields Program has had great success turning blighted spaces into productive centers for economic growth and job creation.”

All communities receiving supplemental funds have census tracks designated as federal Opportunity Zones within their jurisdiction. An Opportunity Zone is an economically distressed community where new investment, under certain conditions, may be eligible for preferential tax treatment. Most often, those who reside near these sites are low-income, minority, and disadvantaged Americans. When coupled with leveraged funds, such as other Brownfield grants or Opportunity Funds, Revolving Loans can be a powerful tool for revitalizing a community of need.

When Revolving Loans are repaid, the loan amount is returned to the fund and lent to other borrowers, providing an ongoing source of capital within a community. To date, EPA’s Revolving Loan grantees across the country have completed 759 cleanups and attracted approximately 45,000 jobs and $8.4 billion in public and private funding.

Background

A brownfield is a property where the expansion, redevelopment, or reuse may be complicated by the presence or potential presence of a hazardous substance, pollutant, or contaminant. There are estimated to be more than 450,000 brownfields in the U.S.

Grants awarded by EPA’s Brownfields Program provide communities across the country with an opportunity to transform contaminated sites into community assets that attract jobs and achieve broader economic development outcomes while taking advantage of existing infrastructure. Under President Trump, over 70% of the communities selected for Brownfields grants in 2019 were located in Opportunity Zones. Brownfields grants have been shown to:

• Increase Local Tax Revenue: A study of 48 brownfield sites found that an estimated $29 million to $97 million in additional local tax revenue was generated in a single year after cleanup. This is two to seven times more than the $12.4 million EPA contributed to the cleanup of these sites.
• Increase Residential Property Values: Another study found that property values of homes near revitalized brownfield sites increased between 5% and 15% following cleanup.

As of February 2020, under the EPA Brownfields Program, 31,516 properties have been assessed and 92,047 acres of idle land have been made ready for productive use. In addition, communities have been able to use Brownfields grants to attract 160,306 jobs and more than $31 billion of public and private funding.

The 2021 National Brownfields Training Conference will be held on April 26-30, 2021 in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. Offered every two years, this conference is the largest gathering of stakeholders focused on cleaning up and reusing formerly utilized commercial and industrial properties. EPA cosponsors this event with the International City/County Management Association.

For more on EPA’s Brownfields Program: http://www.epa.gov/brownfields

For more on Brownfields Revolving Loan Fund Grants: https://www.epa.gov/brownfields/types-brownfields-grant-funding

For more information on Opportunity Zones: https://www.epa.gov/opportunity-zones

Connect with EPA Region 6:

On Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/eparegion6 

On Twitter: https://twitter.com/EPAregion6

About EPA Region 6: https://www.epa.gov/aboutepa/epa-region-6-south-central  

# # #

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Region 7 – 11201 Renner Blvd., Lenexa, KS 66219

Serving Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, and Nine Tribal Nations

Progress at Nebraska and Missouri Superfund Sites Make the Latest EPA Listing for Superfund Accomplishments

Contact Information:   Benjamin Washburn, [email protected], 913-551-7364

(Lenexa, Kan., June 10, 2020) – Today, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) reported on progress at a Grand Island, Nebraska Superfund site and four Missouri Superfund sites in its latest Superfund Accomplishments listing. The Superfund program addresses the nation’s most contaminated sites.

“As we celebrate 50 years of EPA’s commitment to protecting human health and the environment, we can take pride in the last 40 years that the Superfund program has contributed to that success,” said EPA Administrator, Andrew Wheeler. “The Trump Administration is proud to showcase all we have achieved to clean up contaminated sites, protect our communities, and turn these spaces into economic and recreational assets for generations to come.”

“The work done by EPA Region 7 to protect human health and the environment over the past fifty years continues today with important achievements here in the nation’s Heartland,” said EPA Region 7 Administrator Jim Gulliford. “The work we have done, and will do, at Superfund sites across Nebraska, Missouri, Iowa, and Kansas helps restore the environment, and both protects and revitalizes communities.”

Ongoing Cleanup Activities Heat Up at the Cleburn Street Well Site in Grand Island, Nebraska

In FY 2019, EPA successfully removed more than 1,000 pounds of perchloroethylene contamination and achieved cleanup goals using in-situ thermal remediation (ISTR).The ISTR included a system of 53 electrode wells, 39 multi-phase extraction wells, and 12 temperature sensor wells that operated for five months, months, applying over 3,000 megawatt hours of energy, and achieving temperatures above 94 degrees Fahrenheit. This helped trace contamination to three drycleaners and a solvent distribution facility.

Jump-Starting Progress at the West Lake Landfill Site in Bridgeton, Missouri

EPA added the West Lake Landfill Superfund Site to the Administrator’s Emphasis List and issued a proposed cleanup decision for public comment in February 2018 and signed a final cleanup decision on September 27, 2018 for Operable Unit 1, that would use a combination of excavation and capping-in-place on.

Agreement at the Big River Mining Tailings/St. Joe Minerals Corp. Site will Clean Up Residential Yards and Address Lead Contamination from Nearby Mining in Desloge, Missouri

In Fiscal Year 2019, the Agency finalized enforcement agreements with two Potentially Responsible Parties, concluding approximately five years of negotiations and setting in motion the cleanup of lead-contaminated yards near the large mine waste piles at the site. Under the agreement with the Missouri Department of Natural Resources, the state is cleaning up the remaining 57 of 98 residential properties and paying the Agency $65,000 in past and future costs. NL Industries will pay $13 million to be placed in a special account for cleanup of residential properties at the site. The site, located in a former mining region known as the “Old Lead Belt,” approximately 70 miles south of St. Louis, is the result of historic mining activities and involves contaminated surface soils, sediments, surface water, and groundwater.

Increasing domestic supplies of cobalt by recovering metals and critical minerals from existing mine waste in Fredericktown, Missouri

An EPA agreement with Missouri Mining Investments to consolidate and cap mine waste will result in a 1,750-acre property being redeveloped for future mining of cobalt and other metals. This allowed the mine to reopen, creating job opportunities and a potential U.S. domestic supply for cobalt, which is a critical component used in medical equipment, electric cars, and fighter jets.

Innovative Study Provides Certainty at the Compass Plaza Well TCE Site in Rogersville, Missouri

EPA expedited negotiations with the Potentially Responsible Party who signed the consent order in September 2019 — only 90 days from the start of negotiations — as a result of the work of EPA’s Office of Research & Development (collaborating with the U.S. Geological Survey) on an innovative compound specific isotope analysis study. This study provided compelling evidence and certainty of the location of the original TCE release by locating and analyzing degradation byproducts in a complex subsurface area with two aquifers and Karst geology with sinkholes.

Other key achievements in the report include:

• Finishing the job by deleting all or part of 27 sites from the Superfund’s National Priorities List (NPL), the largest number of deletions in a single year since 2001.
• Targeting sites for the Administrator’s immediate and intense attention, using the Administrator’s Emphasis List to resolve issues delaying cleanups and spur action at sites, that in many cases have been waiting idle amid uncertainty for years.
• Completing 233 removal actions to address imminent and substantial threats to human health and the environment
• Securing more than $570 million from Potentially Responsible Parties to clean up Superfund sites and reimburse the Agency more than $280 million
• Celebrating 20 years of redeveloping more than 1,000 Superfund sites that now support 9,180 businesses generating $58.3 billion in sales and employing more than 208,400 people earning a combined income of more than $14.4 billion
• Expanding the charge for the National Environmental Justice Advisory Council to identify additional opportunities for EPA to engage with communities, expedite cleanups and return sites to productive use.

Read the full report here:  https://semspub.epa.gov/src/document/HQ/100002479

Additional information about EPA’s Superfund program can be read here: https://www.epa.gov/superfund

# # #

Learn more about EPA Region 7: https://www.epa.gov/aboutepa/epa-region-7-midwest

Connect with EPA Region 7 on Facebook: www.facebook.com/eparegion7

Follow us on Twitter: @EPARegion7