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  Brownfields  2008

  Grant Fact Sheet

              Kansas

  Department of Health

     and Environment,

       Central Kansas


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 Kansas Department of Health and Environment
(KDHE) was selected to receive a brownfields
assessment grant. The KDHE  is targeting eight
counties (combined population 154,283) in rural central
Kansas for assessments. As the interstate highway
system developed in the United States, traffic along the
region's original single-lane highways declined. Gas
stations that depended on business from cross-country
travelers along U.S. Highways 56 and 281 began to
feel the financial impacts of the shift to the newer
 Assessment Grant
 $200,000 for petroleum

 EPA has selected the Kansas Department of
 Health and Environment for a brownfields assess-
 ment grant. Petroleum grant funds will be used to
 inventory brownfields and conduct 16 to 20 Phase I
 and five to six Phase II environmental site assess-
 ments throughout eight rural counties in central
 Kansas. Grant funds also will be used to support
 community outreach activities.
 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 7 Brownfields Team
 800-223-0425
 http://www.epa.gov/region7/cleanup/brownfields

 Grant Recipient: Kansas Department of Health and
 Environment
 785-296-5519

 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.
interstate system. As these stations closed, many
rural Kansas communities were left with abandoned
properties. These communities struggle to survive as
populations continue to decline and the number of
underused properties in downtown areas increases.
The KDHE database has identified 769 underground
storage tanks in the region. Brownfields assessment
is expected to help the targeted counties gain infor-
mation about environmental conditions at these sites,
and begin planning for cleanup and redevelopment
activities.
                                               Solid Waste and
                                               Emergency Response
                                               (5105T)
                       EPA560-F-08-170
                       April 2008
                       www.epa.gov/brownfields

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