Macon-Bibb County, Gerogia, being awarded EPA Brownfields grant

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Regional Administrator Heather McTeer Toney will award Georgia’s Macon-Bibb County with a Brownfields grant investment for hazardous substances and petroleum assessments, totaling $400,000, in Macon on Thursday.

The event, which will be held at Sanco Sanity Solutions, will also feature Macon-Bibb County Mayor Robert A. B. Reichert and Sanco President Garry Williams.

The grants represents an even split of funds for assessments of the two substances. It is expected to improve the county’s environmental quality and boost the local economy by creating public health jobs for the duration of the cleanup.

The EPA’s Brownfields Program was launched in 1995 and the investments it has undertaken have leveraged $22 billion for cleanup and redevelopment, in addition to providing for more than 100,000 jobs. The program works with leadership organizations like local, state and tribal governments or nonprofit groups and provides early resources to get projects underway and garner more partners. Through these investments, the EPA and its partners redevelop vacant and abandoned sites.