On Friday, at the Buck O’Neil Education and Research Center, EPA Region 7 Administrator Meg McCollister presented a $3 million ceremonial check to the City of Kansas City, Missouri, for its selection to receive additional funding for its Brownfields Revolving Loan Fund. McCollister was joined by Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas.
“This funding is a shining example of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law at work in our Heartland communities,” McCollister said. “EPA and the City of Kansas City, Missouri, have partnered for over 20 years to clean up the city’s contaminated properties. With this investment, we are creating a cleaner and more robust economy for underserved areas within one of our region’s largest cities.”
Kansas City, Missouri, was previously awarded nearly $8.5 million for its RLF. The $3 million presented today is an additional award, made available through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. The city’s RLF program has successfully made loans or subgrants to 11 cleanup projects that are either completed or in progress. Potential Bipartisan Infrastructure Law-funded projects include additional phases of cleanup and preparation for redevelopment at the Hardesty Federal Complex, as well as funding for additional cleanups in the most underserved areas of the city.
“As we create more vibrant, healthy, and clean neighborhoods, I am proud Kansas City received additional vital funding from the EPA to allow us to remove dangerous contaminants, including asbestos and lead-based paint, from vacant lots and aging buildings to make them suitable for building affordable homes or other opportunities to enrich neighborhoods and improve economic prosperity across our city,” Lucas said. “The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law is continuing to make transformational impacts in our community, and I thank the EPA and Congressman Cleaver for our continued, strong partnership to improve the lives of Kansas Citians.”
These investments are part of President Biden’s Investing in America Agenda to grow the American economy from the bottom up and middle out – from rebuilding our nation’s infrastructure to driving over $470 billion in private-sector manufacturing and clean energy investments in the United States, to creating a manufacturing and innovation boom powered by good-paying jobs that don’t require a four-year degree, to building a clean energy economy that will combat climate change and make our communities more resilient.
“I will never get tired of supporting check presentations for federal investments made in our own backyard,” said U.S. Representative Emanuel Cleaver II (MO-5). “This is what Investing in America looks like – making clean energy investments, creating good-paying jobs, and restoring infrastructure in communities across America. I am grateful to the Biden-Harris administration for the concerted effort to strengthen communities like ours, and for the historic Bipartisan Infrastructure Law to continue positively shaping Missouri’s Fifth District.”
EPA has selected organizations to receive funding to address and support the reuse of brownfield sites. EPA anticipates making all the recently announced awards, once all legal and administrative requirements are satisfied.
EPA’s Brownfields Program began in 1995 and has provided nearly $2.37 billion in Brownfields Grants to assess and clean up contaminated properties and return blighted properties to productive reuse. EPA’s investments in addressing brownfield sites have leveraged over $36 billion in cleanup and redevelopment. Over the years, the relatively small investment of federal funding has leveraged nearly 260,000 jobs from both public and private sources. Communities that previously received Brownfields Grants used these resources to fund assessments and cleanups of brownfields, and successfully leveraged an average of 10.6 jobs per $100,000 of EPA Brownfield Grant funds spent and $19.78 for every dollar.
