OGDEN -- Federal, state and local officials will announce today that a $1 million grant has been awarded to establish a revolving loan fund for the cleanup of possibly contaminated properties in Ogden and Salt Lake County.
The Wasatch Front Brownfields Coalition, which includes Ogden, Salt Lake County and Salt Lake City has been selected to receive funds from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
The grant is part of $69 million in EPA funds awarded to 245 communities nationwide for brownfield remediation to bolster property revitalization, job creation and economic development.
A brownfield is a former industrial or commercial site where future use is affected by environmental contamination.
The grant awarded to the Wasatch Front Brownfields Coalition establishes a revolving loan fund to assist developers if environmental cleanup is needed on targeted properties, said Tom Christopolus, the city's interim director of community and economic development.
Money will be loaned to developers and then repaid to replenish the fund.
"It allows them (developers) to take properties that are economically unfeasible and get them in a position so they are developable," Christopolus said.
The Wasatch Front Brownfields Coalition has identified six sites in Ogden and two in Salt Lake County that may be eligible for funds. The sites were selected for proximity to mass transit as well as potential improvements to the health and safety of the community.
Based on previous land uses, a portion of the sites may be contaminated with petroleum hydrocarbons, arsenic, lead, asbestos or other substances, said Christopolus.
The six Ogden sites include:
* The Swift Building that encompasses 4 acres off 24th Street and Exchange Road.
* An area near the 24th Street and I-15 interchange that takes in 23 acres.
* An area known as the Old Stockyards, off 24th Street and Exchange Road that covers 7 acres.
* The Fife property that takes in 37 acres in the vicinity of 17th Street and Wall Avenue.
* About 39 acres near Goode Ski Lake off 20th Street.
* The Wall Avenue Corridor that encompasses about 40 acres from 20th Street to Ogden's western boundary.
The Wasatch Front Brownfields Coalition has also designated properties in West Millcreek and the Granary District in Salt Lake City and Salt Lake County for EPA revolving loan funds.
Salt Lake County Mayor Peter Corroon said the EPA grant is significant.
"It will take collaboration and partnerships to make the kind of progress necessary to clean up the hundreds of thousands of contaminated sites in our country," he said in a prepared statement. "I appreciate the EPA and the State Department of Environmental Quality for all their efforts to clean up brownfield lands."
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