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  Brownfields  2008

  Grant  Fact  Sheet

   Ohio  Department of

         Development


EPA Brownfields Program

EPA's Brownfields Program empowers states, commu-
nities, and other stakeholders to work together to
prevent, assess, safely clean up, and sustainably reuse
brownfields. Abrownfield site is real property, the
expansion, redevelopment, or reuse of which may be
complicated by the presence or potential presence of a
hazardous substance, pollutant, or contaminant.  On
January 11, 2002, President George W. Bush signed
into law the Small Business Liability Relief and
Brownfields Revitalization Act. Under this law, EPA
provides financial assistance to eligible applicants
through four competitive grant programs: assessment
grants, revolving loan fund grants, cleanup grants, and
job training grants. Additionally, funding support is
provided to state and tribal response programs through
a separate mechanism.

Community Description

The Ohio Department of Development was selected to
receive a brownfields revolving loan fund grant.  The
State of Ohio (population 11,478,006) has an industrial
history that has left it with thousands of brownfield
sites along rivers and lakes and throughout small towns
and large cities. The state continues to lag behind
national averages for most economic performance
indicators. Its poverty rate is nearly 10 percent.
Twenty-one communities throughout Ohio are utilizing
federal programs such as Empowerment Zones,
Renewal Communities, and Weed and Seed strategies.
Brownfields are symptomatic of the challenges faced
by the state. For example, the City of Middletown has
struggled financially with the decline of its manufactur-
 Revolving Loan Fund
 Grant
 $1,500,000 for hazardous substances

 EPA has selected the Ohio Department of Devel-
 opment (ODOD) for a brownfields revolving loan
 fund grant. The grant will be used to capitalize a
 revolving loan fund from which the ODOD will
 provide loans and subgrants to support cleanup
 activities for sites contaminated with hazardous
 substances. The ODOD coalition partner is the
 Butler County Port Authority.
 Contacts
 For further information, including specific grant
 contacts, additional grant information, brownfields
 news and events, and publications and links, visit
 the EPA Brownfields web site at: www.epa.gov/
 brownfields.

 EPA Region 5 Brownfields Team
 312-886-7576
 http://www.epa.gov/R5Brownfields

 Grant Recipient: Ohio Department of
 Development
 614-466-4484

 The information presented in this fact sheet comes
 from the grant proposal; EPA cannot attest to the
 accuracy of this information. The cooperative
 agreement for the grant has not yet been negoti-
 ated. Therefore, activities described in this fact
 sheet are subject to change.
ing sector. Estimates indicate that it has more than 247
acres of brownfields, land once used for steel manu-
facturing plants, paper and graphics operations, and
machine shops. Cleanup and redevelopment of
brownfields conducted through the RLF grant are
expected to increase local tax bases and help create
and retain jobs.
                                                Solid Waste and
                                                Emergency Response
                                                (5105T)
                        EPA560-F-08-138
                        April 2008
                        www.epa.gov/brownfields

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