Grant Support

National Experts:  Dan Johnson, Dana Justice, and Melissa Schick

Brownfield and remediation projects can be complex. To support you through the entire process successfully, SCS Engineers provides a dedicated team of specialists. From site assessment to funding, cleanup, and construction, we provide our clients with a streamlined approach and create efficiencies that can give them a significant competitive advantage.

If you are interested in pursuing ECRG funding or EPA grants we offer complimentary consultations and project screenings. After submitting the screening form, one of our grant experts will reach out to schedule a virtual meeting.

SCS Engineers’ Brownfields Practice is a trusted resource for municipal and real estate clients planning remediation projects. We help shorten the project life-cycle and often the costs, plus we help our clients win EBJ and EPA-Phoenix awards for quality and engineering design. Our experts work with you to supplement your understanding of the brownfields grant opportunities, then help you develop a successful proposal.

In addition to the funding, our in-house grant specialists are familiar with various environmental funding sources for affordable housing projects and can tailor solutions to your needs.

Our professional engineers and consultants are available to:

• Recommend grant funding available in your state or commonwealth
• Review potential sites
• Identify target sites
• Develop an appropriate scope and design for diagnostic work and remediation; inclusive of the application narrative
• Prepare cost estimates and budgets
• Develop your application

EPA Brownfields Grants are available in the form of: Community Wide Assessment, Assessment Coalition, Community-wide Assessment, Cleanup, and Multipurpose Grants for the 2025 application cycle. EPA announced the availability of $232 million in grant funding through EPA’s Brownfields Assessment, Revolving Loan Fund, and Cleanup program. Multipurpose, Assessment, RLF, and Cleanup (MARC) Grant Applications are due November 14, 2024.

Assessment Grants provide funding for brownfield inventories, planning, environmental assessments and community outreach.

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 up to $500,000 to assess sites contaminated by hazardous substances, pollutants, contaminants or petroleum.
• Performance period is up to 4 years.

Assessment Coalition Grants are designed for one “lead” entity to partner with two to four entities that do not have the capacity to apply for and manage their own EPA cooperative agreement and otherwise would not have access to Brownfields Grant resources.

• EPA strongly encourages coalitions to include eligible community-based nonprofit organizations as non-lead members to help promote strong local engagement and to ensure that the community’s concerns and vision for revitalization are incorporated into the project.
• The lead entity of the coalition must be one of the following:
  • State
  • County government
  • Federally recognized Indian tribe other than in Alaska
  • Alaska Native Regional Corporation
  • Alaska Native Village Corporation
  • Metlakatla Indian Community
  • Regional council established under a governmental authority (e.g., regional planning commissions)
  • Group of general purpose units of local government established under federal, state or local law (e.g., councils of governments)
• Must function as a single legal entity with the authority to enter into binding agreements with the Federal Government.
• Applicants may request up to $1,200,000 to assess sites contaminated by hazardous substances, pollutants, contaminants or petroleum.
• Performance period is up to 4 years.

Community-wide Assessment Grants for States and Tribes are only available to states, federally recognized Tribal Nations and eligible native corporations in Alaska to address brownfield sites in their jurisdiction.

• Applicants may request up to $2,000,000 to assess sites contaminated by hazardous substances, pollutants, contaminants or petroleum.
• Awards are funded under the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. Therefore, activities carried out at each approved, eligible site may exceed $200,000 per grant.
• Performance period is up to 5 years.

Cleanup Grants provide funding to carry out cleanup activities at brownfield sites owned by the applicant.

• Performance period is up to 4 years.
• Sites may not receive this funding more than once.
• Applicants may request up to $500,000, up to $2 million or up to $4 million to address one or more brownfield sites contaminated by hazardous substances, pollutants, contaminants or petroleum.
• Applicants may submit only one Cleanup Grant application each competition cycle.

Multipurpose Grants are appropriate for communities that have identified through community engagement efforts a discrete area (such as a neighborhood, a number of neighboring towns, a district, a corridor, a shared planning area or a census tract) with one or more brownfield sites.

• Target area may not include communities in distinctly different geographic areas.
• Applicants must own the sites where cleanup activities would take place.
• Applicants can apply for up to $1,000,000 and should demonstrate how grant funds will result in at least one of the following:
  • Phase II environmental site assessment
  • Site cleanup
  • Overall revitalization that includes a feasible reuse plan for one site
• Eligibility determinations for site-specific assessment and cleanup activities will be made after award and throughout the project period.
• Grant recipients may be required to provide a $40,000 match in the form of a contribution of money, labor, materials or services for eligible costs. (Note: EPA has waived cost share requirements for MAC Grants in FY24 per the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.)
• Performance period is up to 5 years.

The Community Change Grants Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO), administered through the Office of Environmental Justice and External Civil Rights (OEJECR) – Rolling Applications Deadline November 21, 2024.

Rolling Applications: The NOFO will be open for a year, closing on November 21, 2024, and EPA will review applications on a rolling basis. This allows applicants to utilize technical assistance and possibly resubmit a new application if not initially selected. EPA encourages applicants to apply as early as possible.

Two-track Submission Processes: Applications can be submitted under two separate tracks depending on the project scope and funding requested.

• Track I, Community-Driven Investments for Change, is expected to award approximately $1.96 billion for 150 projects for $10-20 million each.
• Track II, Meaningful Engagement for Equitable Governance, is expected to award approximately $40 million for 20 projects for $1-3 million each.

Oral Presentations: Track I applicants may also be invited to participate in an oral presentation. These oral presentations will enable EPA reviewers to hear directly from the applicants and their partners to learn more about community priorities, desired outcomes, and plans for long-term sustainability. This new format is responsive to community requests to engage with EPA in more accessible ways.

Target Investment Areas: Out of the $2 billion in funding, EPA has identified five Target Investment Areas (TIA) to help ensure that communities with unique circumstances, geography, and needs can equitably compete for funding. These are:

• Tribes in Alaska: $150 million for projects benefitting Indian Tribes in Alaska including funds for cleanup of contaminated lands.
• Tribes: $300 million for projects benefitting Tribal communities in the other states.
• Territories: $50 million for projects benefitting disadvantaged communities in the United States’ territories of Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, Guam, American Samoa, and the Northern Mariana Islands.
• Disadvantaged Unincorporated Communities: $50 million for projects benefitting small and rural areas that lack fixed, legally determined geographic boundaries, such as Colonias.
• S.-Southern Border Communities: Consistent with EPA’s longstanding commitment to addressing trans-border pollution challenges, $100 million for projects benefitting non-Tribal disadvantaged communities within 100 kilometers north of the U.S.-Mexico border.

Technical Assistance: The $200 million for technical assistance is available in direct response to feedback from communities and environmental justice leaders who have long called for capacity building support for communities and their partners as they work to access critical federal resources. With this funding, there are two TA programs dedicated for the Community Change Grants.

Copies of the FY25 Brownfields Grants Guidelines and other application resources are available on the Multipurpose, Assessment, Revolving Loan Fund, and Cleanup (MARC) Grant Application Resources webpage.

This educational video resource covers USEPA and state funding for affordable housing projects and Brownfields redevelopment. This video focuses on California funding, with portions applicable in all states. Click here for the companion slides.

Meet a few of the team at this recent CCIM webinar to help get your deal with environmental issues over the finish line. Want to get there faster? JUMP TO MINUTE 8:14.