West Virginia counties win $600,000 in EPA brownfields grants

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recently awarded Huntington, West Virginia and other four other southern counties in the state brownfields grants of nearly $600,000 for environmental job training and property assessment.

“Huntington’s neighborhoods were built around industrial plants, and it has been historically known as a manufacturing center,” Huntington Mayor Steve Williams said. “In fact, it still provides hundreds of manufacturing jobs, among the most of any city in West Virginia. Unfortunately, we also have hundreds of acres of vacant industrial property,”

Huntington will receive the bulk of the funds, with a $400,000 grant going toward assessing properties that have been contaminated by petroleum and other hazardous substances.

“This is a monumental first step in our efforts to restore these vacant properties to productive employment centers,” Williams said. “Their restoration is critical to our future.”

The remaining funds, $192,300, were awarded to the Coalfield Development Corporation, which will use the grant to train 80 area residents for environmental jobs cleaning up abandoned and contaminated properties in the region.