BLOOMINGTON, Ind. — Three Indiana communities are getting a share of $1.4 million in federal grants to help clean up or assess pollution at properties in old industrial sites known as brownfields.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said the cities of Bloomington and Union City would get $300,000 grants and the town of Clarksville would get $800,0000. All three communities will use their EPA funding to assess and clean up abandoned industrial and commercial properties.
“These cities are taking proactive steps to improve the environment and economic opportunity in their communities,” EPA Deputy Administrator Janet McCabe said in a statement.
The city of Bloomington’s funding will go toward investigating the environmental condition of properties in the College Avenue/Walnut Street Corridor, which serves as one of the city’s primary residential and employment centers.
Union City’s funding is its first-ever EPA brownfields grant. The eastern Indiana city, which abuts the Ohio border, will use its funding for environmental assessments, preparing cleanup plans and supporting community outreach activities in the Pearl and Oak Street Corridor. That area includes a former bus body manufacturing facility and former auto plant.
The southern Indiana town of Clarksville will use its funding for environmental assessments throughout the city and to remediate any contamination discovered at two of the sites. The EPA said the Clarksville sites likely to be remediated are Graveyard Auto, a former automobile salvage yard, and Cab-Ex, a former unregulated waste disposal facility.
