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Brownfields
2008 Assessment
Grant
Fact Sheet
Kansas Department of Health and Environment, Central Kansas
EPA Brownfields Program
EPA's Brownfields Program empowers states, communities, and other stakeholders to work together to prevent, assess, safely clean up, and sustainably reuse brownfields. A brownfield site is 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. On January 11, 2002, President George W. Bush signed into law the Small Business Liability Relief and Brownfields Revitalization Act. Under the Brownfields Law, EPA provides financial assistance to eligible applicants through four competitive grant programs: assessment grants, revolving loan fund grants, cleanup grants, and job training grants. Additionally, funding support is provided to state and tribal response programs through a separate mechanism.
Assessment Grant
$200,000 for petroleum
EPA has selected the Kansas Department of Health and Environment for a brownfields assessment grant. Petroleum grant funds will be used to inventory brownfields and conduct 16 to 20 Phase I and five to six Phase II environmental site assessments throughout eight rural counties in central Kansas. Grant funds also will be used to support community outreach activities.
Community Description
The Kansas Department of Health and Environment (KDHE) was selected to receive a brownfields assessment grant. The KDHE is targeting eight counties (combined population 154,283) in rural central Kansas for assessments. As the interstate highway system developed in the United States, traffic along the region's original single-lane highways declined. Gas stations that depended on business from cross-country travelers along U.S. Highways 56 and 281 began to feel the financial impacts of the shift to the newer interstate system. As these stations closed, many rural Kansas communities were left with abandoned properties. These communities struggle to survive as populations continue to decline and the number of underused properties in downtown areas increases. The KDHE database has identified 769 underground storage tanks in the region. Brownfields assessment is expected to help the targeted counties gain information about environmental conditions at these sites, and begin planning for cleanup and redevelopment activities.
Contacts
For further information, including specific grant contacts, additional grant information, brownfields news and events, and publications and links, visit the EPA Brownfields Web site (http://www.epa.gov/brownfields).
EPA Region 7 Brownfields Team
(800) 223-0425
EPA Region 7 Brownfields Web site
(http://www.epa.gov/region7/cleanup/brownfields)
Grant Recipient: Kansas Department of Health and Environment
(785) 296-5519
The information presented in this fact sheet comes from the grant proposal; EPA cannot attest to the accuracy of this information. The cooperative agreement for the grant has not yet been negotiated. Therefore, activities described in this fact sheet are subject to change.