Assess proposed development projects or any abandoned or underutilized properties in your community for the potential to use Brownfields funds or assistance.

Brownfields are properties for which the expansion, redevelopment, or reuse may be complicated by the presence or potential presence of a hazardous substance, pollutant, or contaminant. Abandoned or underutilized properties result in wasted infrastructure, development of green space on the edge of town, and blight in urban and neighborhood areas. Communities may struggle to find new uses for brownfields, whether as a neighborhood park or as a new commercial or retail use, unless and until the environmental issues are resolved. Cleaning up and reinvesting in these properties increases local tax bases; facilitates job growth; utilizes existing infrastructure; takes development pressures off of undeveloped, open land; and both improves and protects the environment.

Local governments can use the Brownfields Program to revitalize properties or buildings in their communities by requesting a brownfields assessment, applying for an assessment or clean-up grant, adding a property to DEQ's Brownfield Inventory, or proposing a brownfield site to DEQ. Local governments do not have to own the property in order to ask DEQ to conduct an assessment.

For more information on this program, visit DEQ's Brownfields Web page.