Northern Nevada Development Authority was recently awarded a $600,000 Brownfields Assessment Grant by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency that will be used to identify underused redevelopment sites in Lyon and Churchill counties.
The assessment grant allows NNDA to evaluate and catalog areas that had been considered environmentally contaminated. The grant will be used as a future road map for redeveloping effected sites and is the first step in creating projects directly geared toward economic development.
"Brownfields funding allows communities to innovate new ways to retrofit formerly polluted, unused sites for sustainable new uses," said Jared Blumenfeld, EPA's Regional Administrator for the Pacific Southwest. "This funding will not only protect the environment and public health, but foster new job growth opportunities for rural communities in Churchill and Lyon counties."
The money from the grant will be used to assess sites in Churchill and Lyon counties including but not limited to Yerington, Fernley and Fallon. NNDA will distribute the funds to professional environmental contractors to perform the assessment, according to the EPA.
NNDA's main goal is economic development and job creation. Projects that arise out of the Brownfields grant will create jobs and bring more money into the local economies.
According to the EPA, approximately $23.5 million is going to communities that have been impacted by plant closures.
Other selected recipients include tribes and communities in 44 states across the country. Since the inception of the EPA's Brownfields program in 1995, cumulative brownfield program investments have leveraged more than $21 billion from a variety of public and private sources for cleanup and redevelopment activities. These investments have resulted in approximately 93,000 jobs nationwide."
The application process for the Brownfields grant took NNDA and the EPA grant writing team over two years to prepare and complete. The grant NNDA received is one of 171 grants awarded this year to communities across the country and one of only two granted in the state of Nevada. Funds from the grant will be awarded over a two year period.