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 Cleanup Grants. This program is being funded by the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (Public Law 117-58, the “Bipartisan Infrastructure Law”).

Cleanup Grants provide funding to carry out cleanup activities at brownfield sites owned by the applicant. An applicant may only submit ONE Cleanup Grant application in the FY24 competition cycle. Applicants may request either:

• Up to $500,000 to clean up one brownfield site or to allocate up to $500,000 among multiple sites;
• Between $500,001 and $2,000,000 to clean up one brownfield site or to allocate among multiple sites; or
• Between $2,000,001 and $5,000,000 to clean up one brownfield site or to allocate among multiple sites.

An applicant may request funding to address hazardous substances and/or petroleum contamination at one or more brownfield sites. If contamination at the site is co-mingled with both hazardous substances and petroleum contamination and the hazardous substances and petroleum-contaminated areas of the site are distinguishable, the application must address both eligibility criteria. If the hazardous substances and petroleum are co-mingled and not easily distinguishable, the applicant must indicate which contaminant is predominant and respond to the appropriate site eligibility criteria. An applicant cannot propose an alternate site if a site identified in the application is determined by EPA to be ineligible for funding. An applicant must be the sole owner of the site(s) that is the subject of its Cleanup Grant application and must own the site(s) by November 13, 2023, to be eligible to receive a Cleanup Grant.