St. Helens Brownfields Assessment Program

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
November 8, 2019

St. Helens, Ore. – The St. Helens community is invited to attend an informational meeting about the St. Helens Brownfields Assessment Program on Wednesday, November 20, 2019, at 6 p.m. The meeting will be held in the St. Helens Council Chambers before the regularly scheduled City Council meeting.

On May 31, 2017, the City of St. Helens was awarded a $300,000 grant from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to assess sites that have been contaminated by potentially hazardous substances, pollutants or other contaminants left behind due to previous development on the land. The sites are known as brownfields. These properties often remain underdeveloped and underutilized because of the barriers they face based on known or suspected contamination.

These EPA grant resources fund environmental work at-no-cost to the property owner to assess the presence, character, and extent of contamination and, if necessary, identify a clear path to environmental remediation through cleanup. This environmental work stimulates economic development in the community.

At this point in the project timeline, approximately 80 percent of the grant funds have been utilized on professional environmental assessments on public and private properties. At this meeting, City staff and an environmental consultant will make a brief presentation about the outcomes of these environmental assessments, which will be followed by an opportunity for the City Council or the public to ask questions and provide input on the program.

Although there may be limited funding available in this grant cycle, if you or someone you know owns property that will benefit from professional environmental assessment, you are encouraged to discuss resources that may be available to you with staff that will be at the meeting. Brochures with more information about the program will also be available.

View the City’s Project Website (https://www.ci.st-helens.or.us/planning/page/epa-cwa-program-2017-2019) for more details. 

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If you are interested in learning more about the environmental assessment resources that may be available to you or if you have questions about the City’s Brownfields Assessment Program, please contact Associate Planner Jenny Dimsho at jdimsho@ci.st-helens.or.us or 503-366-8207.