City of Rochester
News Release
(Wednesday, July 13, 2016) – Mayor Lovely A. Warren announced today that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has awarded the City of Rochester $200,000 in supplemental funding for the City’s Brownfields Cleanup Revolving Loan Fund. The funding will be used for cleanup and re-use efforts at contaminated manufacturing sites, especially those in areas characterized by high poverty, unemployment or other indicators of community distress.
“These funds will advance our efforts to help city neighborhoods that have suffered from neglect and disinvestment,” said Mayor Warren. “Cleaning up these contaminated properties in our most challenged neighborhoods is critical to our efforts to create more jobs, safer more vibrant neighborhoods and better educational opportunities in our schools. I want to thank Senators Charles Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand and Congresswoman Louise Slaughter for their work to help us secure these funds.”
The funding is awarded under EPA’s brownfields program, which helps local communities clean up, redevelop and reuse properties with environmental concerns or conditions.
The funding will be used to provide loans to carry out cleanup activities at brownfield sites. As the loans are repaid, the funds are returned to the City and re-loaned to other borrowers. As the funds are recycled, they provide an ongoing source of capital within the community.
Rochester’s fund is used to stimulate private investment in city neighborhoods through the cleanup and reuse of brownfield sites that can create and retain jobs, expand the tax base and eliminate potential risks to public health or environmental degradation.
With this additional award, Rochester will have received since 2007 a total of more than $1 million in EPA funding for the Cleanup Revolving Loan Fund. The City also provides a 20 percent match to the EPA funds.
The funding has been used in Rochester so far to complete four environmental cleanups, which have generated more than $1 million in investment and contributed to the retention of 125 jobs and the creation of 936 construction jobs and more than 360 permanent jobs.
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News Media: For more information, contact Press Officer Jessica Alaimo at 428-7135.