EPA News and Notes

$70 Million in Funding Awarded
AAI Clarification
More Superfund NPL Sites Proposed
Access to Toxics Effects Data

$70 Million in Funding Awarded
Communities in 44 states and two territories, as well as three tribes, will share $69.9 million in U.S. EPA brownfield grants. In all, 209 applicants were selected to receive 292 grants for assessment or cleanup of properties. The $69.9 million in grants includes:

• 184 grants totaling $36.6 million for conducting site assessment and planning for eventual cleanup at one or more brownfield sites or as part of a community-wide effort.
• 96 grants totaling $18.3 million for cleanup activities at brownfield sites.
• 12 grants totaling $15 million to capitalize a revolving loan fund and provide subgrants for cleanup activities at brownfield sites. Revolving loan funds are generally used to provide low interest loans for brownfield cleanups.

The Small Business Liability Relief and Brownfields Revitalization Act authorizes up to $250 million in funds annually for brownfield grants. Since the beginning of the brownfield program, EPA has awarded 883 assessment grants totaling $225.4 million, 202 revolving loan fund grants totaling $186.7 million and 238 cleanup grants totaling $42.7 million.

EPA’s brownfield assistance has leveraged more than $8.2 billion in private investment, helped create 37,525 jobs and resulted in the assessment of 8,374 properties and the cleanup of 93 properties.

Read more on EPA grant awards.

AAI Clarification
The U.S. EPA has issued a statement emphasizing that neither EPA, nor EPA’s brownfield program, is compiling a list or registry of environmental profes-
sionals. Although the All Appropriate Inquiries rule includes a definition of environmental professional, EPA re-minds practitioners that is has not established, nor does it plan in the future to establish, a registry of persons meeting the qualifications for an environmental professional included in the final rule. Any company or Web site that claims to compile a list of registered environmental professionals in conjunction with EPA’s brownfield program is not sanctioned by EPA.

Read more on All Appropriate Inquiries.

More Superfund NPL Sites Proposed
The U.S. EPA is adding six new hazardous waste sites that pose risks to human health and the environment to the National Priorities List of Superfund sites. That brings the total of final sites on the list to 1,244. EPA is also proposing to add four other sites to the list.

With this proposal, there are now 59 proposed sites awaiting final agency action: 54 in the general Super-fund section and five in the federal facilities section. Altogether, there are 1,303 final and proposed sites.

With all Superfund sites, EPA tries to identify and locate the parties potentially responsible for the contamination.  Historically, approximately 70 percent of Superfund cleanups have been performed by the parties responsible for site contamination. For the newly listed sites without viable potentially responsible parties, EPA will investigate the full extent of the contamination before starting significant cleanup at the site. 

Read more about the latest Superfund sites.

Access to Toxics Effects Data
EPA’s new High Production Volume Information System (HPVIS) database will provide available information on the potential hazards associated with the 2,200 most widely used industrial chemicals. HPVIS offers several options for accessing the data, including standard reports, customized requests and the ability to review data for individual chemicals or categories of chemicals.

Read more on HPVIS and the HPV Challenge