The Environmental Protection Agency has announced $13.5 million in grants to clean up polluted sites across Georgia.
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The grants will be used to conduct environmental site assessments and support community engagement activities, as well as to clean up contaminated properties and redevelop them into productive space.
“EPA is focused on delivering practical results that transform contaminated properties into clean, valuable spaces that spark economic growth and that directly benefit American families,” said Thomas Croci, acting assistant administrator for land and emergency management.
The EPA’s Brownfields Program has provided over $3 billion in grant funding to assess and clean up contaminated properties since it began in 1995, with investments leveraging more than $45 billion in cleanup and redevelopment.
An EPA Brownfields Revolving Loan Fund provides grants used by the city to give out low-interest loans to developers, local businesses or nonprofits to clean up abandoned or polluted properties. The borrowers then pay back the loan with interest and it goes right back into the city’s fund. The city uses the repaid money to fund new cleanup projects.
The EPA will provide an additional $500,000 in supplemental funding to one high-performing Brownfields RLF grantee in Georgia.
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The selected Georgia applications for the 2026 Brownfield grants are:
- $500,000 RLF grant to Decide DeKalb Development Authority, which has a high performing RLF with depleted funds.
- $1,500,000 grant to the Augusta Economic Development Authority for environmental assessment and community engagement activities.
- $4,000,000 cleanup grant to the city of Chickamauga to fix a former work site.
- $4,000,000 cleanup grant to Downtown Development Authority of Social Circle and a $499,950 cleanup grant to clean up the Henderson School in Jackson.
- $1,500,000 grant to River Valley Regional Commission for cleanup plans, reuse assessments and community engagement activities.
- $1,500,000 grant to northwest Georgia Regional Commission to conduct environmental site assessments.
- $500,000 grant to Rome Floyd County Development Authority to expand current inventory of Brownfield sites.
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