$500K EPA grant will fund Lehigh Valley brownfield remediation

SteelStacks and the ArtsQuest Center on former Bethlehem Steel property in South Side Bethlehem is one of the Lehigh Valley's most celebrated brownfields properties. (Contributed photo)

The Lehigh Valley Land Recycling Initiative, the redevelopment committee of the Lehigh Valley Economic Development Corp., received $500,000 to help clean brownfield sites.

The Lehigh Valley was one of only nine Pennsylvania communities and 147 communities in the nation to receive the competitive grant from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

The amount was the largest offered by the EPA in this round of grants.

The LVEDC last received an EPA brownfield grant in 2010, for $1 million. That grant enabled the organization to assist 42 different sites and remediate 310 acres of land. The agency also received the brownfield grants in 2005, 2007 and 2008, it said.

The agency will use the latest grant to assist brownfield redevelopment projects in the Lehigh Valley. It is estimated the funds will be used to conduct 16 first-phase and 15 second-phase environmental site assessments for properties throughout the Lehigh Valley, according to Andrew Kleiner, LVEDC’s director of redevelopment and external affairs. He also said the money will be used to prepare up to 15 site-cleanup plans and hold community outreach activities.

The money is not attached to any specific projects. Instead, LVEDC will manage the funds and distribute them as opportunities to assist brownfield development projects arise it said. A brownfield project is one in which the reuse of an industrial site may be complicated by the presence or potential presence of a hazardous substance, pollutant or contaminant.

The EPA awarded a total of $4.1 million in grants to Pennsylvania municipalities or organizations out of $54.3 million in grants divided among communities across the United States.

The corporation said that over the last 15 years, the Lehigh Valley Land Recycling Initiative has seen 300 acres of contaminated land remediated.

The initiative accomplishes brownfield redevelopment by helping site owners and developers identify financial assistance for environmental assessment and remediation work at brownfield sites, and by assisting on technical matters such as grant/loan application preparation, environmental work plan preparation and the completion of buyer/seller agreements.

Source: LVB.com