EPA announces $8.4M in brownfield grants for Wisconsin

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The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has announced more than $8 million in grants to Wisconsin agencies and municipalities to speed up assessment and cleanup of brownfield sites across the state. That includes $3.5 million in federal funding to the Redevelopment Authority of the City of Milwaukee, which will put the money towards projects like the Filer & Stowell site in Bay View.

The EPA also awarded sums from the hundreds of thousands to the millions to the communities of Brillion, Manitowoc, Price County and West Allis. The agency picked 178 communities across the nation to receive 181 grants worth $231 million through its cleanup funds and revolving loan programs.

As part of its mission to clean contaminated properties across all city neighborhoods, RACM expects to use revolving loan money to continue financing affordable housing projects like the Filer & Stowell site, officials said. Proposed by Bear Development, the project will introduce 576 affordable apartments to the Bay View neighborhoods, and a fourth are set aside for seniors.

“For 25 years now, the city of Milwaukee has been fortunate to receive funding from the Environmental Protection Agency, which we have deployed to investigate and clean up brownfield sites across the city,” Milwaukee Mayor Cavalier Johnson said in a statement.

“This allocation of supplemental brownfield revolving loan funds provides a significant boost to our program, allowing us to continue partnering with both EPA and the private sector to provide critical gap financing that helps advance projects creating new jobs and affordable housing. We thank President Joe Biden and the EPA for their continued support of the Milwaukee community,” he added.

Lafayette Crump, the city of Milwaukee’s commissioner of city development, said it was RACM’s hard work that led the country in securing funding for environmental cleanup across Milwaukee.

Three Wisconsin communities will receive more than $4.1 million in competitive grants for brownfield assessment and cleanups, EPA officials said. Those recipients include:

• The Brillion Iron Works Redevelopment will receive $500,000 for cleanup at a 6.3-acre former machine shop and forge site;
• The Community Development Authority of the City of Manitowoc will receive more than $1.9 million to clean up a 2.3-acre former tannery and manufacturing site; and
• Price County United Limited will receive more than $1.6 million to clean up the former 26.2-acre Lionite Mill Property in Phillips.

The EPA also freed up $4.5 million for existing brownfields revolving loan programs, including the one in Milwaukee, EPA officials said. West Allis will get $1 million in addition to $5 million in EPA funds already awarded, and the Milwaukee suburb listed potential projects at the Longfellow School redevelopment and SONA Lot 4 project. The funding will extend the capacity of the program to provide funding for more cleanups in the most underserved areas in the city, officials added.