Two of the 151 communities receiving more than $66 million in Environmental Protection Agency ‘brownfields’ grants announced this week are in Oklahoma.
The Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes of Oklahoma received a $300,000 grant to clean up a site on the Concho School property.
Oklahoma City was the other recipient and will use its $300,000 grant for a community-wide assessment.
Brownfields are intended to assess and clean up contaminated or abandoned industrial and commercial properties that contain a hazardous substance, pollutant or contaminant. There is an estimated 450,000 such brownfields across the nation and among them are former gas stations, waste disposal sites and abandoned industrial facilities.
“This is a significant opportunity for environmental justice communities and rural communities that for far too long have been living with blighted pieces of property. And now they can see on the horizon investment opportunities that will come to fruition,” EPA Administrator Michael Regan said Tuesday in an interview.
He said nearly half of the groups or communities that received the grants received money for the first time under the program.
The grants “really tie into what we’ve been saying all along, which is environmental protection and economic prosperity are not mutually exclusive, but they go hand in hand,” Regan said.