Central Pennsylvania receives $1.8M in grants to rehabilitate communities

PHILADELPHIA (WTAJ) — The United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced that $16 million in Brownsfield grants are coming to the Commonwealth, including in Central Pennsylvania.

The funding has been made available through investing from President Biden’s Investing in America agenda that will rehabilitate and revitalize communities in Pennsylvania.

Cameron County has received a $1.5 million assessment grant with the funds going towards inventory sites and to conduct environmental site assessments. This includes developing cleanup and rescue plans, and supporting area-wide planning and community engagement.

Assessment activities will occur throughout the North Central Region of Pennsylvania with a focus on Cameron, Clearfield and Potter Counties. Priority sites include an abandoned and vacant lumber yard, a property historically used for manufacturing munitions, a former dump site and a 17-acre former paper mill.

Cresson Township in Cambria County received a $325,000 cleanup grant that the Bipastitan Infrasutrue Law funded. The funds will be used to clean up the Cresson Ridge site. The 13.5-acre cleanup site was historically used as a service station, barber shop, restaurant, living area, motel and ice cream/fruit stand but has been closed for decades. It has also been contaminated with inorganic contaminants, benzene, ethylbenzene, naphthalene and 1,2,4-trimethylbenzene. The money will also go towards developing reuse plans and conducting community engagement activities.

“President Biden sees contaminated sites and blighted areas as an opportunity to invest in healthier, revitalized communities,” EPA Administrator Michael S. Regan said. “That’s why he secured historic funding under the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, supercharging EPA’s Brownfields program to clean up contaminated properties in overburdened communities and bring them back into productive use.”

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EPA said they selected these organizations and others to receive funding to address and support the reuse of brownfield sites to address the health, economic, social, and environmental challenges caused by brownfields. EPA anticipates making all the awards announced today once all legal and administrative requirements are satisfied.

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