King County receives grants to help communities assess contaminated ‘brownfield' sites

2005 Archived News

King County Executive Ron Sims announced today that the county will receive $400,000 in grant funds to help businesses, organizations and municipalities clean up and reuse sites that are vacant or underutilized because of known or perceived environmental contamination.

Two $200,000 assessment grants were awarded to King County by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) Office of Solid Waste and Environmental Response (OSWER). Including the new grants, since 1998, King County has received a total of $1.3 million in EPA Brownfields assessment and cleanup grants.

"Contaminated sites are an eyesore and an economic drain," Sims said. "King County has been working with businesses and nonprofits for more than six years to clean up environmentally contaminated sites, helping create jobs, open space and affordable housing."

"King County has proven to be one of America's showcase communities for successful Brownfields redevelopment," said Ron Kreizenbeck, acting regional administrator for EPA Region 10. "By setting high standards, meeting or exceeding environmental cleanup goals and bringing industrial land back into productive reuse, County Executive Sims and his Administration serve as an excellent example for other local governments across the nation to emulate."

The new funding will be used on sites to be identified by King County, including, potentially, a former oil bulk plant in the City of Enumclaw and a gasoline plume in the City of North Bend. Conducting assessments on properties can help lead to the cleanup and eventual redevelopment of those properties. One recent project that received extensive assessment and cleanup assistance from the King County/City of Seattle Brownfields Program is Courtland Place, a mixed-use development in the Rainier Valley with commercial space and affordable senior housing sponsored by the nonprofit SouthEast Effective Development (SEED).

The EPA defines a brownfield site as: "…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."

For more information on the King County/City of Seattle Brownfields Program contact Lucy Auster, Senior Planner, King County Solid Waste Division at 206-296-8476 or lucy.auster@kingcounty.gov or visit http://www.metrokc.gov/dnrp/swd/brownfields/index.asp.