FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: April 8, 2008

Contact: Stacey Swank

Pinellas County Economic Development

(727) 464-7425 or sswank@pinellascounty.org

CLEARWATER, Florida – April 8, 2008 - The United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced today that Pinellas County will receive three brownfield cleanup grants totaling $600,000. The grant funds will be used to remove garbage from historic landfill sites located in the Dansville Neighborhood and fill the excavations with clean soil. The parcels served as unregulated landfills used for dumping solid waste in the 1960s and 1970s.

"These grants will have a very positive impact in Dansville. The funds will enable us to provide a cleaner and healthier environment, revitalize vacant and underutilized property and reuse it in a way that improves the quality of life and the economic vitality of our community." said Teri Hasbrouck, Pinellas County's Brownfield Program Manager. "This is just the next step in the expansion of our Brownfield Land Recycling Program."

Only seven communities out of 108 received the maximum award of $600,000 in cleanup grants. In all, 209 applicants were selected to receive 314 brownfield grants.

The EPA’s Brownfields Program empowers states, communities and other stakeholders to work together to prevent, assess, safely clean up and sustainably reuse brownfields. Brownfield sites are abandoned, idled, or underused industrial and commercial properties where expansion or redevelopment is complicated by actual or perceived environmental contamination. Designating an area as a Brownfield can spur redevelopment efforts, revitalize a community, improve the environment, fuel job growth, increase property values and standard of living, promote secondary business creation and provide reduced construction costs and financial incentives for local businesses.

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