Congresswoman Kim Schrier Secures $1.7M to Clean Up Roslyn Brownfield Site

WASHINGTON, D.C – On May 20, the EPA selected Forterra NW for a Brownfields Cleanup Grant funded by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law that Congresswoman Schrier voted to pass. Grant funds will be used to clean up the Roslyn Number 4 Mine in the City of Roslyn. The 30-acre coal mine began operations in the 1880s and was shut down in 1909 following a mine explosion. After the closure, a foundry built for the mine continued to process coal from other mines until the mid-1970s. The property has been vacant since that time because it is contaminated with heavy metals and petroleum hydrocarbons and therefore cannot be used for any other purpose. The cleanup will allow Roslyn to use this land for the betterment of the community.

“I am grateful to the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law we passed and President Biden signed, and to the EPA for this investment to clean up contaminated land in Roslyn,” said Rep. Schrier. “The city will benefit greatly from turning this property, vacant for fifty years, into a community asset. This funding will provide family wage jobs and bring economic opportunity to Roslyn."

More specifically, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced $1,779,070 in grant awards from President Biden’s Investing in America agenda to expedite the assessment and cleanup of brownfield sites in Washington’s Eighth District while advancing environmental justice. These investments through EPA’s Brownfields Multipurpose, Assessment, and Cleanup (MAC) Grant Programs and Revolving Loan Fund (RLF) Grant Programs will help transform once-polluted, vacant, and abandoned properties into community assets, while helping to create good jobs and spur economic revitalization in overburdened communities.

“President Biden sees contaminated sites and blighted areas as an opportunity to invest in healthier, revitalized communities,” said EPA Administrator Michael S. Regan. “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.”

Many communities in economic distress, particularly those located in areas that have experienced long periods of disinvestment, lack the resources needed to initiate brownfield cleanup and redevelopment projects. As brownfield sites are transformed into community assets, they attract jobs, promote economic revitalization, and transform communities into sustainable and environmentally just places.

Thanks to the historic $1.5 billion boost from President Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, EPA’s Brownfields Program is helping more communities than ever before begin to address the economic, social, and environmental challenges caused by brownfields and stimulate economic opportunity and environmental revitalization in historically overburdened communities.

EPA’s Brownfields Program advances President Biden’s Justice40 Initiative which set a goal that 40% of the overall benefits of certain Federal investments flow to disadvantaged communities that are marginalized by underinvestment and overburdened by pollution. The Brownfields Program strives to meet this commitment and advance environmental justice and equity considerations in all aspects of its work. Approximately 86% of the MAC and RLF Supplemental program applications were selected to receive funding proposed to work in areas that include disadvantaged communities.

Additional Background:

EPA has selected organizations to receive funding in order to convert brownfield sites and 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.

EPA’s Brownfields Program began in 1995 and has provided nearly $2.7 billion in Brownfield Grants to assess and clean up contaminated properties and return blighted properties to productive reuse. Prior to the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, this program made approximately $60 million available each year. Thanks to the President’s historic investments in America through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, EPA has now increased that yearly investment by nearly 400 percent. More than half of the funding available for this grant cycle (approximately $160 million) comes from the historic $1.5 billion investment from President Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. This investment has also increased the MAC grants’ maximum award significantly from $500,000 to $5 million per award.