SD City Receiving Cleanup Grant from EPA

The Environmental Protection Agency has given the city of Yankton, SD, a grant award of $170,000 to clean up the Jensen Scrap Yard in the city.

The city of Yankton is among communities in 44 states that will share more than $75 million in EPA Brownfields grants to help revitalize former industrial and commercial sites, transforming them from eyesores into community assets.

The $170,000 EPA cleanup grant will be used by the city to clean up the scrap yard, deemed the most contaminated brownfield site in the city. Grant funds will be used to clean up soils contaminated with chromium, lead and PCBs and will also fund community involvement activities. The site was used at various points as a scrap yard, railroad line and industrial storage facility for bulk oil.

In addition to grants being announced today, participants in the Brownfields program gain access to the expertise and resources from more than 20 federal agencies. Nationwide, there are four categories of grants being awarded with 218 applicants, including three tribal nations, selected to receive 302 grants totaling $75.9 million. These include:

• 172 assessment grants, worth $33.6 million, to assess and plan for eventual cleanup at one or more brownfield sites;

• 106 cleanup grants, totaling $19.3 million, for recipients to clean up brownfield sites they own;

• 13 revolving loan fund grants, totaling $20.8 million, for communities to use to make low-interest loans for the cleanup of brownfield sites, and