(State) Five Iowa communities have been selected to receive $5.5 million in grants from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to clean up and restore blighted or contaminated properties.
Sites selected in Iowa are former grocery stores, a YMCA building, a meat packing plant, abandoned businesses and a smelting facility. The EPA Brownfields Program helps a community to assess, clean up and eventually reuse contaminated sites that would otherwise be unusable.
The City of Clinton received a grant for a little over $1 million, which City Administrator Matt Brooke said will be used to remove the pool section of the city’s former YMCA.
The former YMCA building is contaminated with asbestos and lead, which make it unsuitable for redevelopment until it is remediated.
“This grant funding will enable Clinton to continue a crucial environmental cleanup project,” Brooke said in a press release sent by EPA. “Clinton continues to work toward a cleaner and greener community for all people to live, work, and enjoy.”
The Iowa grants are part of a nationwide allotment of $267 million in brownfields grants.
EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin said the program will help to create new opportunities for businesses and housing while strengthening local economies.
“EPA’s Brownfields program demonstrates how environmental stewardship and economic prosperity complement each other,” Zeldin said in a statement. “Under President Trump’s leadership, EPA is Powering the Great American Comeback, ensuring our nation has the cleanest air, land, and water while supporting sustainable growth and fiscal responsibility.”
The EPA Brownfields Program started in 1995, but saw a significant boost in funding under former President Joe Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Plan.
Another recipient of the recently awarded funding, East Central Intergovernmental Association, has facilitated brownfield clean up projects in eastern Iowa through its participation in the Brownfield Revolving Loan Fund with EPA. The association was awarded $1.5 million to help replenish the fund, which EPA said has been “high performing.” The fund thus far has supported projects like the YMCA remediation in Clinton and a property in Dubuque.
“Many communities are burdened with brownfield sites but lack the resources to address them,” said Dawn Danielson, ECIA’s brownfields coordinator. “The ripple effect of EPA’s investments is transformational, not only for the site itself but also for surrounding properties.”
Danielson said the remediated sites typically become “catalysts for economic development” in the area and breathe “new life” into communities.
Le Mars Mayor Rob Bixenman, similarly said the grant will revitalize “key areas” of the community and help to accelerate the city’s community development plan.
Le Mars was awarded $400,000 to assess and develop clean up plans at a former Walmart, meat packing plant, landscaping company and unused hotel along the city’s business corridor.
The City of Keokuk was also selected to receive just under $2 million to clean up a 16-acre site that formerly smelted and refined zinc and lead. According to EPA, the site is contaminated with coal tar, zinc smelting residuals that are high in polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, or PAH, and heavy metals. The plant opened in 1915 and operated until the 1980s.
The site has received a number of EPA grants as the city works to clean up the site and hopefully attract a redeveloper.
The City of Red Oak was also selected and will receive a $500,000 grant to conduct site assessments and community engagement for unused properties along its Broadway Street.
