EPA awards $200K to the City of Tarrant to clean up contaminated industrial site

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recently awarded the City of Tarrant a $200,000 Brownfields Cleanup Grant to assist in remediation of a contaminated industrial site. This was the only cleanup grant awarded in Alabama and only one of 59 nationally.

GMC worked on  the grant application for the City, which will provide funding for remediation of Tarrant Industrial Park and support long-term reuse plans to provide greenspaces, flood relief and a habitat and environmental education center adjacent to the property.

The EPA held a Brownfields Grant Awards Ceremony in Birmingham at the beginning of June, during which EPA Region 4 Administrator Heather McTeer Toney praised the City of Tarrant for its redevelopment plans. “Adding more greenspace and allowing for walking trails greatly improves not only the quality of life in the community for the citizens, but assists the EPA in providing the environmental support they want to see happen in all of their communities.”

Through its Brownfields Grant Program, the EPA provides funding to communities to aid in the cleanup of brownfields, which are defined as “real properties, the expansion, redevelopment, or reuse of which may be complicated by the presence or potential presence of a hazardous substance, pollutant, or contaminant.”

Because every brownfield is different, each one requires a unique remedial strategy. The EPA’s Brownfields Program empowers state and local officials to implement solutions to address local problems, encouraging public-private partnerships and promoting creative methods to assess, clean up and redevelop brownfield sites.

Receiving this funding also provides protection for resources like neighborhoods and surface water and access to the resources of EPA and ADEM to assist the City in safely cleaning up any areas of concern on a contaminated property.