Colorado will receive about $11.6 million from the Environmental Protection Agency to clean up contaminated properties in six cities throughout the state.
The Brownfields Grants will use funding from the Biden-era Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and are meant to help remediate sites and prepare them for redevelopment and safe use.
“Redevelopment of Brownfields properties is often an insurmountable challenge for many communities, which may lack the resources to assess and clean up these contaminated properties,” Tracie White, Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment’s Hazardous Materials and Waste Management Division director, said in a statement. “The award of EPA Brownfields funds is an exciting opportunity for the recipient communities, allowing them to return blighted properties to productive use and provide community benefits.”
The largest share of funding, at $4 million, will go toward cleaning asbestos contamination at the Sunset Park Apartments in Denver. The building has 242 units for people 62 years and older and people with disabilities. It is owned by the Volunteers of America.
The City of Fountain will get about $2 million to complete asbestos abatement on a 9-acre site that the city wants to redevelop into a community center, multifamily housing, outdoor recreation space and offices for medical services and child care.
About $1.9 million will go to treat asbestos contamination at the 142-year-old Jaffa Opera House in Trinidad. Cañon City will receive about $1.5 million for two contaminated sites, including a former dry-cleaning business contaminated with tetrachloroethylene and a previous steel manufacturing site that is contaminated with heavy metals and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, which can cause health problems like cancer and kidney damage.
The other grants will go to the Cortez Municipal Airport and two buildings in Lamar.
CDPHE will also get $1 million for its revolving loan funds, which finance environmental cleanup activities.
“This Brownfields grant funding is a smart investment in Colorado’s future – cleaning up historic contamination while laying the groundwork for economic growth,” EPA Region 8 Administrator Cyrus Western said in a statement. “By empowering communities to turn abandoned properties into productive assets, we’re strengthening local economies and ensuring clean land for generations to come.”
Colorado’s grants are part of about $224 million of awards throughout the country.
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