BROWNFIELDS COMMUNITIES GET
$1.8 MILLION FOR JOB TRAINING

     EPA Administrator Carol M. Browner today awarded nine communities a

total of $1.8 million in grants to
provide environmental job training at brownfields sites.  Since the job
training program was started in 1998, more
than 540 local workers have been trained in 20 states and Puerto Rico.
Today's announcement marks another step in
the EPA's longstanding efforts to promote economic vitality, while
protecting our nation's environment and
safeguarding public health.

   "The Administration believes that workforce development and job
training
are the critical links between
environmental cleanup and safe, sustainable community development," said

Browner.  "These grants help to guarantee
that brownfields cleanup and redevelopment have the trained workforce
needed
to revitalize contaminated properties,
and that local community members have the opportunity to compete in the
economic mainstream."

     The job training grants, totaling $200,000 each, are used to
implement
environmental training programs for
the creation of workforce development programs to teach job skills in
the
field of environmental cleanup to
individuals living in low income areas in the vicinity of brownfields
sites.
The majority of participants who
successfully complete the training program go on to pursue careers with
environmental firms and organizations.

     Brownfields are abandoned, lightly contaminated properties often
found
in economically distressed areas,
that are returned to economically thriving, community hubs.  Since 1993,
the
EPA has taken significant steps to
clean up brownfields and return them to productive use, awarding over
$157
million in grants to cities, counties,
tribes, states, non-profits and educational institutions nationwide.

     According to an independent study conducted by the Council for
Urban
Economic Development, the
revitalization of brownfields has created over 22,000 permanent jobs,
and
leveraged $2.48 in private investment for
every $1 spent by federal, state, or local governments.

     With today's selection of recipients in Massachusetts, Maryland,
Illinois, Louisiana, North Dakota, New
York, Iowa, North Carolina, and Connecticut, brownfields job training
program efforts are now active in 23 states
and Puerto Rico.  For more information go to:
http://www.epa.gov/brownfields/


R-197                              # # #

Brownfields Job Training Grants
December 2000


Western Iowa Tech Community College, Sioux City, Iowa
With the $200,000 Brownfields Job Training and Development grant,
Western
Iowa Tech Community College plans to
train 40 residents of Sioux City's state Enterprise Zone. Changes in the

meat packing industry over the past 35
years have left a legacy of abandoned buildings and contaminated
properties
within the Enterprise Zone. The per
capita income of Sioux City (population 106,000) places it in the bottom

half of the largest 350 cities in the
United States. Environmental companies, particularly those working with
the
Sioux City Brownfields Assessment
Pilot, are interested in hiring local residents trained as environmental

technicians. The 222-hour training program
will consist of general construction, lead abatement, introduction to
environmental technology, ecosystem
restoration, and innovative technologies. An advisory committee
consisting
of project partners and residents has
been formed to coordinate pilot activities.

Contacts: Mayor Marty Dougherty - Phone: (712)279-6102
Project Director, Marc Christofferson - Phone (712)274-6400 x1258 - Fax
(712)274-6429


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