The City of Waynesboro has been awarded a $300,000 Brownfields Assessment Grant from the Environmental Protection Agency.
The Brownfields Assessment Grant program provides funding for localities with a significant number of contaminated sites that may be held back from redevelopment by uncertainty surrounding environmental liabilities. The money can be used to procure environmental site assessments, a major step in determining the scope of the cleanup process. The money can also be used for redevelopment planning to help localities create a marketable vision for the responsible reuse of these sites.
“Grants awarded by EPA’s Brownfield Program provide communities and tribes across the country with an opportunity to transform contaminated sites into community assets,” said EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler.
This is Waynesboro’s second Brownfields Assessment grant award. In 2012, the city received a grant that allowed Phase I and Phase II Environmental Site Assessments to be conducted on a number of prominent post-industrial sites, creating clarity for buyers and sellers looking into redevelopment projects on those sites.
The 2012 grant also funded an economic analysis and redevelopment concept plan for the downtown.