Petroleum Brownfields
                                INFORMA TION SHEET
INTRODUCTION
On January 11, 2002, President George W. Bush
signed into law the "Small Business Liability Relief
and Brownfields Revitalization Act" (Public Law
107-118). This law gives communities across the
country the tools they need to reclaim and restore
thousands  of  Brownfields   sites,  including
petroleum-contaminated sites.

GRANT PROPOSAL GUIDELINES
Grant proposal guidelines have been published; see
"Proposal Guidelines for Assessment, Revolving
Loan Fund, and Cleanup Grants, " EPA-500-F-02-
142, October  2002. The due date for proposal
submission is December 16, 2002.

THE NEW BROWNFIELDS LAW
The new Brownfields Law allows EPA to award
Brownfields grant funds for activities at
petroleum-contaminated sites that:
       • EPA or the state determines are of
"relatively low-risk" compared with other
petroleum-contaminated sites in the state;  and
       • EPA or the state determines have no
viable responsible party and which will be
assessed, investigated, or cleaned up by a person
that is not potentially liable for cleaning up the
site.

In addition, petroleum-contaminated sites must
not be subject to a corrective action order under a
Resource Conservation and Recovery Act
(RCRA) §9003 (h) order.
PETROLEUM BROWNFIELDS SNAPSHOT

Date of New Law: January 11, 2002

Grants for: Assessment, revolving loan fund,
cleanup,
and job training

Grant Proposal Due Date: December 16,
2002

Definition of a Brownfields Site: "...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."

Additional Areas Now Specifically Eligible
for Funding: Sites contaminated by petroleum
and petroleum products

Contacts and Information:
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)
Office of Underground Storage Tanks (OUST)
Washington, DC  20460
(703) 603-9900
Visit the EPA OUST website at:
    http://www.epa.gov/oust/

Visit the EPA Brownfields website at:
www.epa.gov/brownfields for further
information, including specific EPA Brownfields
                  (more)

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OTHER PROVISIONS OF THE NEW LAW
•       Expands eligibility for Brownfields
        funding by broadening the entities
        eligible for funding for assessment,
        cleanup, and job training grants.
•       Includes as eligible entities for funding:
        • General purpose units of local
        government;
        • Land clearance authority or other quasi-
        governmental entity that operates under
        the supervision and control of, or as an
        agent of, a general purpose unit of local
        government;
        • Governmental entity created by a state
        legislature;
        • Regional council or group of general
        purpose units of local government;
        • Redevelopment agency that is chartered
        or otherwise sanctioned by a state;
        • State;
        • Indian tribe other than Alaska; and
        • Alaskan Native Regional Corporation,
        Native Village Corporation, and
        Metlakatla Indian Community.
        • NOTE: Nonprofit organizations may
        apply for cleanup grants.
•       Defines a Brownfields site broadly, but
        excludes certain sites from funding
        eligibility unless EPA makes a property-
        specific determination to fund.
•       Requires a 20 percent cost share for
        revolving loan fund and cleanup grants.
•       Specifies grant funds cannot be used for
        administrative costs.

PETROLEUM SITE ELIGIBILITY
DETERMINATIONS FOR GRANT  FUNDING
To demonstrate to EPA that a petroleum-
contaminated site is eligible for grant funding,
you may:
•       Contact a state petroleum program
        official; and
•       Discuss and resolve the eligibility of a
        site as a:
        • petroleum-contaminated site that would
        be a "relatively low-risk" site  compared
        to all of the other petroleum sites in the
        state, and
        • petroleum- contaminated site for which
        there is no viable responsible party and
        which will be assessed, investigated, or
        cleaned up by a person that is  not
        potentially liable for cleaning up the
        site.
•       Document the discussion in the grant
        application (the part that requires a
        description of the site) by identifying :
        • the state petroleum program official
        contacted;
        • the date of the contact;
        • the telephone number and address of
        the contact;
        • a summary of your discussion to
        reach the above determinations;
        AND/OR
        •any documentation provided to you
        by the state.
•       EPA may seek further clarification
        from the grant applicant or the state.
•       If eligibility information is not
        provided in the proposal, EPA may
        contact the state for such a
        determination of eligibility. In other
        words, the absence of this information
        is not per se a disqualification of the
        applicant.
•       EPA will make determinations of site
        eligibility for sites on Indian tribal
        lands.
•       NOTE:  If the application is NOT site
        specific, this process, or something that
        achieves a similar result, must be
        engaged in before EPA will approve a
        grant recipient's cleanup or assessment
        activities on a particular petroleum-
        contaminated  site.

For further information , see pages 18, 22, and
25 of the "Proposal Guidelines for Assessment,
Revolving Loan Fund,  and Cleanup Grants, "
EPA-500-F-02-142, October 2002,
www.epa.gov/brownfields/applicat.htmtfpg.
Solid Waste and

Emergency Response

(5401 G)
EPA-510-
F-02-019
Novembe
r 2002
www.ep
a.gov/ous

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