The Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA) was amended by the Small Business Liability Relief and Brownfields Revitalization Act in 2002 to include Section 104(k), which provides federal financial assistance authorities for brownfields revitalization, including grants for assessment, cleanup, and revolving loan funds. The Brownfields Utilization, Investment, and Local Development (BUILD) Act (Public Law 115-141) enacted in 2018 reauthorized EPA’s Brownfields Program and made additional amendments to CERCLA that affect EPA’s brownfield grant authorities, and ownership and liability provisions. EPA’s Brownfields Program provides funds to empower states, tribal nations, communities, and nonprofit organizations to prevent, inventory, assess, clean up, and reuse brownfield sites. This guidance provides information on applying for Community-wide Assessment Grants.

Assessment Grants provide funding for developing inventories of brownfield sites, prioritizing sites, conducting community involvement activities, conducting planning, conducting site assessments, developing site-specific cleanup plans, and developing reuse plans related to brownfield sites. A portion of the Assessment Grant funding must be used to conduct site assessments. Assessment Grant funds may not be used to conduct cleanup activities.

Community-wide Assessment Grants are appropriate for communities that are beginning to address their brownfield challenges, as well as for communities that have ongoing efforts to bring sites into productive reuse.

Applicants may request funding up to $500,000 to address sites contaminated by hazardous substances (i.e., sites with potential contamination of hazardous substances, pollutants, or contaminants) and/or petroleum5 (i.e., sites with potential petroleum contamination). For the purposes of this solicitation, the cost of assessment activities carried out at each approved, eligible site may not exceed $200,000 per site. EPA will determine site eligibility after the award of the grant throughout the project period.

Applicants can apply for only one Community-wide Assessment Grant.

Note, a solicitation for new Site-specific Assessment Grants is not available in FY24. EPA encourages entities that are interested in assessing a specific site to apply for an FY24 Community-wide Assessment Grant.