EPA announces $400,000 Brownfields grant for Missoula

Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Regional Administrator Shaun McGrath presented Missoula, Montana, Mayor John Engen with a $400,000 grant to help the city continue its efforts to assess, clean and develop underused properties in areas like its Urban Renewal District and Clark Fork River Waterfront.

"EPA Brownfields grants continue to help Missoula transform contaminated and underused properties into economic assets," McGrath said. "There are few communities in the U.S. that can match the vision, commitment and skill that Missoula has demonstrated in cleaning up and reviving blighted properties. EPA is proud to be investing in new projects that will continue to address contamination and create new opportunities here in the city.”

Missoula has received over $3.5 billion in EPA Brownfields grants since 1998, which it has used effectively by encouraging private sector cooperation through the Greater Downtown Master Plan. The grant funds awarded today will be used in the Clark Fork River Waterfront area, cleaning such sites as a former landfill, vehicle fueling and repair sites, and abandoned buildings.

“We have enjoyed a great partnership with EPA and it is evident in the heart of Missoula on the riverfront at the old mill site, where what was a post-industrial wasteland is now one of Missoula’s premier parks, and the neighboring land is ripe for a new mixed-use neighborhood," Engen said. "That doesn’t happen without this kind of partnership.”