The USEPA offers grants to municipalities to fund brownfield cleanups and cleanup studies. OER currently has approximately $1.1 million in brownfield grants and is pursuing an additional $1 million for 2009. These grants can be used in several ways to stimulate brownfield redevelopment and can also be used to leverage proposed OER cleanup investigation grants. Ultimate recipient of grant benefits can include NYC agency in coordination with OER, enrollees in OER's brownfield cleanup program, or applicants that are not yet enrolled (for remedial investigation grants only).

The USEPA Brownfield Grants are currently under development for non-city projects. It is anticipated that grants under this program will be available in early 2009. Stay tuned for more details.

Anticipated Grant Delivery Mechanism
Numbered items in narrative below are illustrated in the attached flow chart.

1. USEPA bestows grant on OER. Funds are available in the form of reimbursement grants.
   OER staff member provides labor to administer contracting and financial management through EDC.
2. OER allots roughly $25-200k of the USEPA grant allotment to a project and contracts directly for services for cleanup investigation or cleanup with an OER-approved vendor (approximately 5-25 grants per annum).
3.  Vendor performs cleanup or cleanup investigation services according to a negotiated work plan in accordance with EDC procurement protocol.
4. Vendor completes services and issues a cleanup report or a cleanup investigation report which is delivered to OER and the originating entity (applicant, volunteer or NYC agency client).