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

King County will receive $400,000 in grant funds to help small businesses, non-profit organizations and municipalities assess sites that are vacant or underutilized because of known or perceived environmental contamination.

In announcing the grants, King County Executive Ron Sims said the county will receive two $200,000 assessment grants from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Office of Solid Waste and Environmental Response. King County has received a total of $1.7 million in EPA Brownfields assessment and cleanup grants since 1998, including the new grants.

"Contaminated sites create blight and are barriers to neighborhood redevelopment," Sims said. "King County has been working with businesses and nonprofits for more than eight years to clean up environmentally contaminated sites, which helps create jobs, open space and affordable housing."

"As one of the original EPA Brownfields Showcase Communities, King County has a proven track record of achievement when it comes to providing assessment help for communities poised to cleanup and redevelop brownfield sites," said Elin Miller, regional administrator for EPA Region 10.

"Through this program, County Executive Sims and his administration provide free technical assistance that brings vacant or underutilized land back into productive reuse. King County leads by example, serving as an inspiring model for other local governments across the nation," Miller said.

The new funding will be used on sites to be identified by King County, including, potentially, a former dry cleaner in the City of Bothell and a former gas station in southeast Seattle. Conducting assessments on properties can help lead to the cleanup and eventual redevelopment of those properties. One recent project that is receiving extensive assessment assistance is a former greenhouse and oil-storage facility on Vashon Island that the community wishes to see turned into open space.

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, contact Lucy Auster, senior planner, King County Solid Waste Division, 206-296-8476 or lucy.auster@kingcounty.gov, or visit www.metrokc.gov/dnrp/swd/brownfields/index.asp.