Elizabeth (NJ) Mayor Christian J. Bollwage today released the following statement on behalf of The U.S. Conference of Mayors applauding passage of Brownfield Redevelopment legislation:
“On behalf of the nation's Mayors, I commend members of the Senate Environment and Public Works and House Energy and Commerce Committees for passing bipartisan Brownfield Redevelopment bills that would reauthorize the very successful Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) Brownfields program.
“Several Mayors testified on behalf of the Conference of Mayors on this issue this year including me, USCM Energy Chair New Bedford (MA) Mayor Jon Mitchell, and Schenectady (NY) Mayor Gary McCarthy.
“We commend Congress for listening to the Conference and making improvements to the bill including: increasing cleanup grant amounts, creating a multipurpose grant, and maintaining funding levels.
“Brownfields are abandoned or underutilized properties whose redevelopment is hindered by real or perceived environmental contamination. There are an estimated 400-600,000 sites like these throughout the United States, and redeveloping these locations has been a priority for the Conference of Mayors since the 1990s.
“Redeveloping brownfields cleans up properties, creates jobs, and recycles land back into productive use while preserving farms and greenfields.
“According to EPA, since the inception of the program, over 26,000 brownfield sites have been assessed and over 5,700 properties and 66,000 acres have been made ready for reuse. The program has leveraged over 123,000 jobs and over $23.6 billion dollars. In fact, EPA estimates that every dollar spent leverages approximately $16 in other investments.”
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Attachments:
A photo accompanying this announcement is available at http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/1f12c4bc-6ce8-4f40-9fd3-0e865d7350c4