City of Duluth to Receive $300,000 Brownfields Assessment Grant

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, Congressman Pete Stauber (MN-08) announced that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has selected the City of Duluth for a Brownfields Assessment Grant worth $300,000. Half of the money has been allotted for the cleanup of sites with potential hazardous substances contamination and the other half for cleanup of sites with potential petroleum contamination.

"I was ecstatic to learn that my hometown of Duluth is the recipient of a Brownfields Assessment Grant," said Congressman Stauber. "These funds will be used to convert our contaminated sites into community assets that will create jobs for hardworking Duluthians and help unleash the economic engine in the city and surrounding area."

Assessment activities will focus on the city's St. Louis River Corridor and Downtown/Central Hillside Neighborhood, which includes ten priority sites.

Background:

A brownfield is a property for which 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 United States.

As of May 2019, under the EPA Brownfields Program, 30,153 properties have been assessed, and 86,131 acres of idle land have been made ready for productive use. In addition, communities have been able to use Brownfields grants to leverage 150,120 jobs and more than $28 billion of public and private funding.

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