COLUMBIA, S.C. - A federal grant to provide loans and subgrants to help carry out cleanup activities and redevelopment projects at brownfields sites has been awarded to the S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control, the agency announced today.
“The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency chose to award $1.85 million to DHEC because of our ability to assist communities around the state through effective brownfields redevelopment loans,” said Earl Hunter, DHEC’s commissioner. “These funds will go into our revolving loan fund to provide low or no interest loans for brownfields cleanups.”
According to the EPA, brownfields are sites where expansion, redevelopment, or reuse might be complicated by the presence or potential presence of a hazardous substance, pollutant or contaminant.
“While none of these funds have been earmarked for any specific sites, we showed the EPA that South Carolina has ‘shovel-ready’ sites,” Hunter said. “This grant will help provide loans and subgrants to support cleanup activities at many of those ‘shovel-ready’ sites contaminated with hazardous substances and petroleum that we identified to the EPA.”
Hunter said $1.35 million of the grant will address hazardous substance contamination and $500,000 will address petroleum contamination. The grant was funded through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009.
For more information about brownfields, see DHEC’s Web site at:
http://www.scdhec.gov/environment/lwm/html/brownfields.htm.