Beaverton receives $400,000 from U.S. Environmental Protection ...

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency awarded Beaverton two grants worth $200,000 each to assess properties that may be contaminated.

One grant is to assess hazardous material contamination and the other is for petroleum contamination, said Amy Koski, economic development project coordinator for the city. Contaminated commercial or industrial sites are known as brownfields.

The money will allow the city's Community and Economic Development Department to launch a brownfields redevelopment program to help property owners identify and clean up contamination.

Deschutes County also received $400,000 for brownfield assessment through this program.

While these grants would only pay for assessment, other money could be available from the state and the EPA for environmental cleanup in the future, said Alma Flores, Beaverton's economic development manager.

Rep. Tobias Read, D-Beaverton, recently toured brownfield sites in the city and supports House Bill 3030, which would provide more state money for brownfield cleanups. The bill is currently in the Joint Committee on Ways and Means.

"We want to have more project-ready sites," Flores said, noting that companies seeking land will move on to other sites if a potential property turns out to need lengthy environmental cleanup. Beaverton has a limited number of industrial sites and needs to make sure properties are ready for development, she said.

The Oregon Department of Environmental Quality lists 58 Beaverton sites in its environmental cleanup database and another 911 sites in its database of leaking underground storage tanks. Many of these sites have already been assessed or cleaned up, but around 27 of these could benefit from assessment, Flores said.

Contaminated sites tend to be in lower-income neighborhoods, and removing environmental hazards could improve the quality of life in those communities, she said.

"It's best to be proactive with issues related to the land," Flores said.

The city has not determined which sites could receive grant funding or how long the assessment process could take. All the potential sites are privately owned, Flores said.

As part of its grant program, the city would hire a consultant or multiple consultants to handle the assessments, Koski said.

Flores and Koski will attend an EPA brownfields conference in Atlanta next week, where they hope to learn more about how to implement the grants, Flores said.

Grants are an increasingly important part of Beaverton's strategy for revitalizing its downtown and launching health and transportation projects.

Beaverton hosted a symposium in February with federal, state and local officials to discuss how grant programs and intergovernmental cooperation could help the city achieve its goals. Officials from the federal and regional EPA offices attended.

The city hired Sustainable Strategies DC in June to help the city apply for grants, at a cost of up to $116,000 through the end of this fiscal year. In addition to the EPA grants, Sustainable Strategies has helped the city secure $1.6 million from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and a technical assistance award from the EPA.

-- Nicole Friedman

Source: http://www.oregonlive.com/beaverton/index.ssf/2013/05/beaverton_receives_400000_from.html

solar flares mary j blige gcb patricia heaton arsenic and old lace dionne warwick leslie