EPA issues $300K brownfields grant to Springfield

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Brownfields Radar: City targets 500 Springfield properties

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency selected Springfield for a $300,000 brownfields grant after City Council voted to reapply for the three-year financing late last year.

With the grant, the city plans to conduct 30 environmental site assessments and develop 10 cleanup plans for lots that are abandoned because of real or perceived contamination, according to a news release.

The city plans to focus on sites along Kearney Street and historic Route 66, as well as those in northwest Springfield and center city.

“Assessments will help us identify and remove lead contamination and other hazards in structures and soils to protect our most vulnerable populations, create jobs for job training graduates and lead to leveraged investment like the $400 million achieved with our last Brownfields Assessment Grant,” said Olivia Hough, Springfield senior planner and brownfields coordinator, in the release. “Oftentimes, these projects would not proceed but for the first brownfields dollars used to assess environmental conditions.”

In the December 2017 Springfield Business Journal article, “Brownfields Radar: City targets 500 Springfield properties,” Hough estimated some 500 brownfields sites are in the Queen City. One potential site is at McCoy Iron & Metal Inc., 321 N. Fort Ave., where the city has performed environmental investigations with hopes of creating a new park in the Jordan Valley West Meadows development area.

Springfield was among 144 communities chosen by the EPA for 221 brownfields grants totaling $54.3 million, according to the release.