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The Honolulu Advertiser

Posted on: Monday, October 25, 2004

EPA awards total of $993,221 for projects on O'ahu, Kaua'i

Advertiser Staff

The Environmental Protection Agency has handed out nearly $1 million in grants for brownfields projects on O'ahu and Kaua'i.

Brownfields is the term for contaminated or abandoned sites that are subject to cleanup and redevelopment. There are an estimated 450,000 such sites across the nation.

In a ceremony at Gov. Linda Lingle's office Friday, the EPA handed out grants of $993,221 for four projects. The state Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism received $400,000 and Kaua'i County $200,000 to inventory potential brownfields sites, assess what possible hazardous materials are in the soil, develop cleanup plans, and make contact with the local communities to involve them in the process.

The Anahola Homesteaders Council plans to use its grant of $196,344 to clean up a 20-acre area that has been a dumpsite for old cars, appliances and other castoff materials. The area is former sugar land that has arsenic and mercury contamination in the soil. The council hopes to develop the site into a new town center, with a school, affordable housing for elderly residents, community meeting facilities and more.

The homesteaders' council also recently received a separate $100,000 EPA environmental justice grant to involve the community in resolving some of the environmental problems in the area.

A brownfields grant of $196,877 went to Honolulu Community College to train 60 students in environmental safety and the handling of hazardous materials, and to place them with potential employers.