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MO Environmental Improvement and Energy Resources Authority to Target Brownfields Redevelopment

Posted on: Friday, 30 December 2005, 21:00 CST

By St. Louis Daily Record Staff

The Missouri Environmental Improvement and Energy Resources Authority received $1 million to help revitalize communities across Missouri. A check was presented to EIERA by James Gulliford, Region 7 regional administrator for the U. S. Environmental Protection Agency.

EIERA will use the grant to establish and administer a Brownfields Revolving Loan Fund for eligible Missouri sites. As the state financing agency working with the Department of Natural Resources, the authority is Missouri's bridge between economic development and environmental interests. During the past 30 years, the authority has provided financing exceeding $5 billion for environmental and energy projects.

The state of Missouri will target small and rural communities for this funding, said Department of Natural Resources Director Doyle Childers in an announcement. Many times, in smaller communities, these sites are vacant buildings, warehouses or similar structures located on the main road or at a major intersection in the community. Smaller communities often don't have the resources to engender the development of new businesses and commercial activities.

Approximately 99 percent of Missouri's communities have populations below 50,000.

By some estimates, there are 300,000 to 500,000 abandoned commercial and industrial properties in cities and towns across the United States. Often with dilapidated buildings or weed-covered open spaces, these properties are called brownfields. The specter of hazardous chemical contamination has contributed to their abandonment by former owners, lending institutions reluctant to provide financing for purchase and redevelopment, and hesitant property developers.

Since 1990, Missouri communities have received approximately $5 million in EPA brownfields grants. EIERA will coordinate brownfields activities with the Department of Natural Resources, which will provide expertise in cleanup oversight.

Some of this real estate lies in economically blighted neighborhoods in need of jobs, or in highly desirable redevelopment areas such as waterfronts, Childers said in the announcement.

Despite the opportunities they represent, the sites remain vacant due to real or perceived hazardous substance contamination and the liability that contamination can bring. EIERA works closely with banks and financial institutions on a daily basis, said Tom Welch, director of the EIERA, also in the announcement. In term of developing revolving accounts and funds, we have a national track record.

For more information on brownfields, see the department's Web site at http://www.dnr.mo.gov/env/hwp/bvcp/hwpvcp.htm.

Source: St. Charles County Business Record

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