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SOUTHGATE, MI – Today, Congresswoman Debbie Dingell (D-MI) announced that the Downriver Community Conference (DCC) is receiving $600,000 in supplemental funding from the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to help clean up and redevelop Brownfield sites. The DCC is a proven leader in Brownfield remediation and has received more than $12.6 million in Brownfield funding since 2008. 

“The Downrivers have many valuable natural resources that make it a safe place to live, raise families, and enjoy the outdoors,” said Dingell. “The need to clean up left-behind, contaminated Brownfield sites continues to be the goal for Downriver leaders to improve livability. The DCC has an excellent track record of using Brownfield dollars in such a manner and the supplemental funding from EPA enables this good work to continue. The DCC has a strong plan to use these funds. We thank the EPA for recognizing the valuable leadership in Brownfield redevelopment with this supplemental award.” 

“The Downriver Community Conference is honored to receive a $600,000 Brownfield Assessment Grant that will assist many of our members from the Downriver Community Conference Brownfield Coalition in the coming years,” said Jim Perry, Executive Director DCC. “The DCC has proven to be an effective organization to implement EPA brownfield funding. Since 1997, the DCC has received $2,650,000 in EPA assessment grants. We have provided assessment and due diligence to over 200 sites. We greatly appreciate the partnership with our EPA over the many years in working to clean up our region, and take blight sites, and make them bright again.”

EPA has selected the Downriver Community Conference for a Brownfields Assessment Coalition Grant. Communitywide grant funds will be used to conduct 30 Phase I and 25 Phase II environmental site assessments and up to 15 baseline environmental assessments. Grant funds also will be used to conduct community outreach activities. Assessment activities will focus on the 18 communities in Southeast Michigan and Washtenaw County, many of which have Qualified Opportunity Zones. Priority sites include the Ecorse Steel Mill Property, the Lincoln Park Shopping Center, the River Rogue Marion Industrial Property, the Riverview Brine Fields, the Port of Monroe Industrial Properties, and the Trenton/Gibraltar Jefferson Avenue Corridor. Coalition partners are the cities of Allen Park, Dearborn, Ecorse, Gibraltar, Grosse Ile Township, Lincoln Park, Melvindale, Monroe, Riverview, River Rogue, Romulus, Southgate, Taylor, Tecumseh, Trenton, Woodhaven, and Wyandotte, the Port of Monroe, and Washtenaw County.

Below is further background on the EPA Brownfield Program. 

A Brownfield is a property for which the expansion, redevelopment or reuse may be complicated by the presence or potential presence of a hazardous substance, pollutant or contaminant. There are estimated to be more than 450,000 Brownfields in the United States.

Grants awarded by EPA’s Brownfield Program provide communities across the country with an opportunity to transform contaminated sites into community assets that attract jobs and achieve broader economic development outcomes while taking advantage of existing infrastructure. For example, Brownfields grants have been shown to:

• Increase Local Tax Revenue: A study of 48 Brownfields sites found that an estimated $29 million to $97 million in additional local tax revenue was generated in a single year after cleanup. This is two to seven times more than the $12.4 million EPA contributed to the cleanup of these sites.
• Increase Residential Property Values: Another study found that property values of homes near revitalized brownfields sites increased between 5% and 15% following cleanup.

As of May 2019, under the EPA Brownfields Program, 30,153 properties have been assessed and 86,131 acres of idle land have been made ready for productive use. In addition, communities have been able to use Brownfields grants to attract 150,120 jobs and more than $28 billion of public and private funding.