Rome should have $400,000 in the bank by August to start assessing several former commercial and industrial sites for pollutants.
City Manager John Bennett accepted a symbolic grant check Monday from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s brownfields program.
Bennett said knowing if — and how — a tract is contaminated makes investors less leery about planning to redevelop it. And, he said, converting eyesores into tax-producing properties has a ripple effect.
“It’s not just the site the program cleans up,” Bennett said. “It (sparks) clean-up of the area around it.”
Russell Wright, EPA acting deputy regional administrator, said the $300 million in assessment grants awarded nationally since 2004 has leveraged more than $10 billion in investment and 47,000 jobs.
“This is kind of a jump-start,” he told city officials, adding other types of funding can be tapped once problems have been identified.
A priority site list will be ready by the time the money is available in August, said Eric Lindberg, Environmental Services director for Rome and Floyd County.
“There are some areas in South Rome we know we want to test, the soils and the groundwater, to determine what contaminants are there,” he said.
The old O’Neil Manufacturing plant on Anderson Street is another likely target, he said, because the company in charge of it is defunct.
The money represents two grants of $200,000 each.
One will be used for about six basic hazardous materials assessments and three more detailed studies. The other is earmarked for as many as 13 studies at closed convenience stores or other sites with underground fuel tanks.
