Biden-Harris Administration Announces $9 Million Through Investing in America Agenda for Cleanup and Technical Assistance at Polluted Brownfield Sites in South Carolina

EPA announces the largest investment ever in brownfields communities made by President Biden’s Investing in America Agenda

May 25, 2023

Columbia, S.C. (May 25, 2023) – Today, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced $9 Million from President Biden’s Investing in America Agenda to expedite the assessment and cleanup of brownfield sites in South Carolina while advancing environmental justice.

EPA selected five recipients in South Carolina to receive grants totaling $9 Million in competitive EPA Brownfields funding through the Multipurpose, Assessment, Revolving Loan Fund, and Cleanup (MARC) Grant programs. Thanks to the historic boost from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, this is the largest ever funding awarded in the history of the EPA’s Brownfields MARC Grant programs. In addition, the agency is announcing $3,000,000 in non-competitive supplemental funding to one successful existing Revolving Loan Fund (RLF) Grant programs to help expedite their continued work at sites across the country by extending the capacity of the program to provide more funding for additional cleanups.

These investments are  part of President Biden’s Investing in America Agenda to grow the American economy from the bottom up and middle-out – from rebuilding our nation’s infrastructure, to driving over $470 billion in private sector manufacturing and clean energy investments in the United States, to creating a manufacturing and innovation boom powered by good paying jobs that don’t require a four-year degree, to building a clean-energy economy that will combat climate change and make our communities more resilient.

“We’re working across the country to revitalize what were once dangerous and polluted sites in overburdened communities into more sustainable and environmentally just places that serve as community assets. Thanks to President Biden’s historic investments in America, we’re moving further and faster than ever before to clean up contaminated sites, spur economic redevelopment, and deliver relief that so many communities have been waiting for,” said EPA Administrator Michael S. Regan. “This critical wave of investments is the largest in Brownfields history and will accelerate our work to protect the people and the planet by transforming what was once blight into might.”

"This historic investment of more than $35 million for communities across the Southeast will help address suspected contamination of urban and suburban properties that dates back to the Industrial Revolution," said EPA Region 4 Administrator Daniel Blackman. "Brownfields and other contaminated properties often are located in environmental justice communities where residents are disproportionately impacted, thus making these awards especially critical."

“This round of investments is another example of how the Biden-Harris administration continues to deliver critical infrastructure investments for our state,” said U.S. Representative James E. Clyburn (SC-06). “This funding will provide the resources needed to revitalize and redevelop brownfields sites into environmentally sustainable and economically thriving assets for our communities.”

Many communities that are under economic stress, particularly those located in areas that have experienced long periods of disinvestment, lack the resources needed to initiate brownfield cleanup and redevelopment projects. As brownfield sites are transformed into community assets, they attract jobs, promote economic revitalization, and transform communities into sustainable and environmentally just places.

Thanks to the historic $1.5 billion boost from President Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, EPA’s Brownfields Program is helping more communities than ever before begin to address the economic, social, and environmental challenges caused by brownfields and stimulate economic opportunity, and environmental revitalization in historically overburdened communities.

EPA’s Brownfields Program also advances President Biden’s Justice40 Initiative to direct 40 percent of the overall benefits of certain Federal investments to disadvantaged communities. The Brownfields Program strives to meet this commitment and advance environmental justice and equity considerations into all aspects of its work. Approximately 84 percent of the MARC program applications selected to receive funding proposed to work in areas that include historically underserved communities.

State Funding Breakdown:

Brownfields Multipurpose, Assessment, Revolving Loan Fund, and Cleanup (MARC) Grant Program Selection

The following organizations in South Carolina have been selected to receive EPA Brownfields funding through the Multipurpose, Assessment, Revolving Loan Fund, and Cleanup (MARC) Grant Programs.

• Georgetown County, S.C. has been selected to receive $500,000 Assessment Grant. Community-wide grant funds will be used to conduct 20 Phase I and ten Phase II environmental site assessments. Grant funds also will be used to prepare a site inventory, develop four cleanup plans and two site reuse assessments, and support community outreach activities. The target area for this grant comprises rural unincorporated areas and industrial sectors of Georgetown County. Priority sites include a 23.6-acre former textile mill and a 7-acre former steel mill property that houses a baghouse waste pile.

• Greenville County Redevelopment Authority, S.C. has been selected to receive $1,000,000 Assessment Grant. Grant funds will be used to conduct 20 Phase I and 12 Phase II environmental site assessments. Grant funds also will be used to develop eight cleanup plans and ten redevelopment plans, and support community outreach activities. Assessment activities will occur throughout the county with a focus on the City of Fountain Inn, the City of Simpsonville, the Former Woodmont High School target area in Piedmont, and the Augusta Road Corridor. Priority sites include the 33-acre former Wilson’s Sporting Goods Factory in Fountain Inn, the former Spinx gas station in Simpsonville that was demolished in 2016, the Former Woodmont High School that has been unused since 2005, and the Triangle Parcels that contain a vacant restaurant, a former gas station, and an underutilized motel. Non-lead coalition members include the Cities of Fountain Inn and Simpsonville and the community-based nonprofit United Housing Connections.

• Orangeburg, S.C. has been selected to received $500,000 Assessment Grant. Community-wide grant funds will be used to conduct six Phase I and five Phase II environmental site assessments. Grant funds also will be used to prepare four cleanup plans, four reuse plans, one Community Involvement Plan, and to conduct community engagement activities. The target area for this grant is the City of Orangeburg with a focus on the 1.06-square-mile University Commons Area. Priority sites include a 3.64-acre All Star Bowling Lanes Plaza shopping center, the former Southern Railway Station, and a 1.25-acre assemblage of 11 vacant parcels known as Railroad Corner, which was the historical center of Black-owned businesses in the city.

• South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control has been selected to receive $2,000,000 Assessment Grant. Grant funds will be used to conduct 78 Phase I and 34 Phase II environmental site assessments. Grant funds also will be used to prepare 20 cleanup plans, create an inventory of brownfield sites, and support community outreach activities. The target areas for this grant are the Cities of Greenville and Orangeburg and St. Helena Island. Priority sites include former residential structures, a primarily vacant shopping center, an assemblage of 11 parcels located in downtown Orangeburg, and the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial Park on St. Helena Island.

• Summerville, S.C. has been selected to receive $2,000,000 Assessment Grant. Community-wide grant funds will be used to conduct 16 Phase I and nine Phase II environmental site assessments. Grant funds also will be used to inventory sites, prepare four cleanup plans, and support community outreach activities. The target area for this grant is the Town’s North of the Railroad (NoRR) neighborhood. Priority sites include several vacant lots and a former local oil services provider.

You can read more about this year’s MARC selectees, here.

Non-competitive Supplemental Funding Through the Existing Revolving Loan Fund (RLF) Grant Program

The Agency is announcing $3,000,000 in non-competitive supplemental funding to one successful existing Revolving Loan Fund (RLF) Grant programs that have already achieved success in their work to clean up and redevelop brownfield sites. RLF Grants provide funding for recipients to offer loans and subgrants to carry out cleanup activities at brownfield sites. The funding announced today will help communities continue to address the economic, social, and environmental challenges caused by brownfield sites. The following South Carolina organizations have been selected to receive non-competitive Supplemental Funding Through the Existing Revolving Loan Fund (RLF) Grant Program.

• South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control has been selected to receive an additional $3,000,000. The RLF program has successfully made loans or subgrants leading to 20 cleanup projects that are either completed or in progress. Potential projects highlighted for use of the BIL funding include support of Cleanup activity at historic mill sites in Buffalo, Lancaster, Great Falls, and Anderson, South Carolina. The BIL funding will extend the capacity of the program to provide funding for more cleanups in the most underserved areas in the State of South Carolina. 

You can read more about this year’s RLF recipients, here.

Additional Background:

EPA has selected these organizations to receive funding to address and support the reuse of brownfield sites. EPA anticipates making all the awards announced today once all legal and administrative requirements are satisfied.

EPA’s Brownfields Program began in 1995 and has provided nearly $2.37 billion in Brownfield Grants to assess and clean up contaminated properties and return blighted properties to productive reuse. EPA’s investments in addressing brownfield sites have leveraged more than $36 billion in cleanup and redevelopment. Over the years, the relatively small investment of federal funding has leveraged, from both public and private sources, nearly 260,000 jobs. Communities that previously received Brownfields Grants used these resources to fund assessments and cleanups of brownfields, and successfully leverage an average of 10.6 jobs per $100,000 of EPA Brownfield Grant funds spent and $19.78 for every dollar.

The next National Brownfields Training Conference will be held on August 8-11, 2023 in Detroit, Michigan. Offered every two years, this conference is the largest gathering of stakeholders focused on cleaning up and reusing former commercial and industrial properties. EPA co-sponsors this event with the International City/County Management Association (ICMA).

For more on Brownfields Grants: https://www.epa.gov/brownfields/types-brownfields-grant-funding

For more on EPA’s Brownfields Program: https://www.epa.gov/brownfields