May 22, 2024 |City of Lynn, City Services, From the Mayor, News

City of Lynn to receive $500,000 in federal Brownfields funding

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The City of Lynn will receive a $500,000 Community-wide Brownfield Assessment Grant as part of more than $300 million in funding announced by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Tuesday.

The grants are being awarded through the Biden-Harris Administration’s Investing in America agenda to help states, tribal nations, local governments and nonprofit organizations assess and clean up polluted brownfield sites across the country.

These investments will help transform once-polluted, vacant and abandoned properties into community assets, while helping to create good jobs and spur economic revitalization in overburdened communities. 

“Receiving this Brownfields assessment grant is a significant milestone in our current efforts to revitalize areas in our community that have been unsafe and contaminated for far too long,” said Mayor Jared C. Nicholson. “This funding will allow us to assess and address environmental contamination, paving the way for enhanced environmental justice and a healthier community equipped for future development and economic growth.”

The City can use the grant money throughout Lynn, but will be particularly focused on contaminated properties in the waterfront and downtown areas, according to Lauren Drago, urban planner for the City.

“We want to turn vacant, contaminated sites into assets for our community, and these funds will be a big help in making that work possible,” Drago said. “Brownfields development is a team sport, and we are grateful not only for these funds but for the technical assistance our U.S. EPA contacts provide as we navigate these complex properties.”

Lynn is one of 178 communities to receive 181 grant awards totaling $231 million. The EPA also announced $68 million in supplemental funding for 31 existing, high-performing Brownfields Revolving Loan Fund (RLF) grant programs, as well as the selection of Grow America, an RLF technical assistance provider, for an estimated $3 million in grant funding.  

“This is great news and builds on our past success and our great working relationship with all of our partners on these difficult redevelopment sites. We have a great team here in Lynn and I know these assessment funds will translate into more wins for the City in the future.”

James Cowdell, Executive Director of the Economic Development & Industrial Corporation (EDIC/Lynn)

EDIC/Lynn and the City of Lynn are currently working together to implement a $500,000 Brownfields Cleanup Grant from the EPA awarded in 2023 to remediate the Whyte’s Laundromat property in downtown Lynn.

In a press release issued by the EPA, President Joe Biden hailed the distribution of this grant funding.

“Far too many communities across America have suffered the harmful economic and health consequences of living near polluted Brownfield sites,” Biden said. “I’ve long believed that people who’ve borne the burden of pollution should be the first to see the benefits of new investment.”

“President Biden sees contaminated sites and blighted areas as an opportunity to invest in healthier, revitalized communities,” said EPA Administrator Michael S. Regan. “That’s why he secured historic funding under the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, supercharging EPA’s Brownfields program to clean up contaminated properties in overburdened communities and bring them back into productive use.”  

EPA’s Brownfields Program advances Biden’s Justice40 Initiative which set a goal that 40 percent of the overall benefits of certain federal investments flow to disadvantaged communities that are marginalized by underinvestment and overburdened by pollution. The Brownfields program strives to meet this commitment and advance environmental justice and equity considerations in all aspects of its work. Approximately 86 percent of the MAC and RLF supplemental program applications selected to receive funding proposed to work in areas that include disadvantaged communities. 

EPA’s Brownfields Program began in 1995 and has provided nearly $2.7 billion in Brownfield grants to assess and clean up contaminated properties and return blighted properties to productive reuse. Prior to the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, this program made approximately $60 million available each year. The EPA has increased that yearly investment by almost 400 percent.

The above press release was submitted to us by Mayor Nicholson’s office.