Thirteen communities in 10 states will share more than $2.5 million in job training grants geared toward cleaning up contaminated properties and turning them into productive community assets. EPA, under its Brownfields Initiative, is awarding grants of up to $200,000 each to non-profit organizations, local governments, a university, and a tribe. The grants will teach environmental assessment and cleanup job skills to individuals living in low-income areas near brownfields sites in Alabama, California, Louisiana, Massachusetts, North Carolina, Nevada, New York, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, and Washington.

Since 1998, EPA has awarded more than $23 million in brownfields job training funds. Approximately 4,000 people have completed training programs, with more than 2,500 obtaining employment in the environmental field, earning an average wage of $13.93 per hour. The program is designed to ensure that the economic benefits derived from brownfields redevelopment remain in the affected communities.

EPA's brownfields program encourages redevelopment of America's estimated 450,000 abandoned and contaminated waste sites. EPA's brownfields assistance has attracted more than $9.9 billion in private investment and helped attract more than 45,000 jobs.