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Grants & Funding
Atlanta, Georgia
Before: A former steel mill has been transformed into a mixed use metropolitan hub.
After: Upscale residential accommodations at Atlantic Station.
Grants and funding options are available for various aspects of many of the cleanup programs. For example, some grants encourage community involvement in the cleanup process, some support training related to cleanups, and some help fund the assessment, cleanup, or redevelopment of a site.
Depending on the type of site and the program managing site cleanup, contaminated and potentially contaminated sites and properties are eligible for different types of funding. Funding may be available from EPA, state, and other federal agencies and departments.
EPA Resources
The following list provides links to several EPA programs that provide grants or that help stakeholders find funding or other forms of financial assistance. There are options that are specific to the type of site you have as well as general funding options.
- EPA site-specific funding sources
- Brownfields
EPA’s Brownfields Program provides direct funding for brownfields assessment, cleanup, revolving loans, and environmental job training. In addition to direct brownfields funding, EPA also provides technical information on brownfields financing matters. - Federal Facilities
Stakeholder involvement is a priority at Federal Facility sites. Included in the program’s stakeholder involvement tools and resources are public participation programs, technical assistance grants, and technical outreach services for communities. - RCRA
A number of grant resources are available to RCRA sites. Some funding opportunities are the same as those available for Brownfields sites. - Superfund
Superfund provides resources to help citizens obtain assistance and grants to help them better understand and get involved in Superfund cleanup and reuse activities. A variety of community programs, technical assistance and training, and monetary aid are available. - Underground Storage
Tanks
To encourage the reuse of abandoned properties contaminated with petroleum from underground storage tanks (UST’s), the Office of Underground Storage Tanks created the USTfields Initiative in 2000. Although no new USTfields pilots will be awarded beyond the first 50 pilots, funding for similar assessment and clean up projects is available through the Brownfields assessment, cleanup, and revolving loan fund grants and through the LUST Trust Fund. - EPA funding options that apply across site and program type
- Environmental Finance Program
This program assists communities in their search for creative approaches to funding their environmental projects. - Technical
Outreach Services for Communities (TOSC)
The Technical Outreach Services for Communities program helps citizens better understand the hazardous contamination issues in or near their communities by providing free, independent, non-advocate, technical assistance about contaminated sites.
State-specific funding sources
Because financing remains a significant barrier to revitalizing a formerly contaminated site, many states have recognized the critical role a financing program can play for addressing these sites. Most of these state finance tools focus on brownfield sites, but other site types (e.g., UST sites) may be eligible for state financing options as well.
Individual state cleanup programs may be able to provide information about grants and other funding sources that can help to leverage funding at contaminated and formerly contaminated properties. Some additional state funding resources include:
- Financing
Tools and Strategies for State Brownfield sites
(21 pp, 132 K, about PDF)
This report, developed by the Northeast Midwest Institute, provides examples of successful state tools and strategies for filling capital gaps in brownfield cleanup and redevelopment projects. - State
Local Economic Development Agencies
Most states offer economic development loans and funding resources, often through state development agencies. These state authorities can provide funding that can supplement the special financing needs of contaminated site reuse.
Non-EPA Funding Options
In addition to EPA grant and funding options, there are a range of federal resources that can provide technical and financial support for contaminated site cleanup and redevelopment.
- Housing and Urban Development
Brownfields Economic Development Initiative
HUD operates a competitive grant program to stimulate and promote economic and community development.
- Economic
Development Administration
The Department of Commerce’s Economic Development Administration
authorizes grants for projects to expand, redevelop or reuse brownfields,
within EDA’s existing program structure, including sites which
will use solar energy technologies to develop abandoned or contaminated
sites for commercial use.
Office of
Surface Mining
- Federal
Transit Administration
Because many formerly contaminated sites are located in urban areas with viable transit options, the Federal Transit Administration, through its Urbanized Area Formula and Metropolitan Planning Grant Programs, can play a role in local revitalization efforts. - Catalogue of Federal Domestic Assistance
Provides access to a database of all Federal programs available to state and local governments, federally recognized Indian tribal governments; and Territories of the United States. - Grants.gov
Allows organizations to electronically search and apply for competitive grant opportunities from all Federal agencies with grant-making activities. - Brownfields
Federal Program Guide (86 pp, 885 K, about PDF)
This program's guide outlines the technical and financial federal resources that can be leveraged for brownfields cleanup and redevelopment.
The Office of Surface Mining in the Department of Interior, through its Abandoned Mine Land Program and its Clean Streams Initiative, offers financial and technical assistance for grant writing and for the assessment, reclamation, and redevelopment of abandoned mine lands as brownfields.