EPA announces $2M in funding to assess and cleanup land in Salt Lake City, UT
SALT LAKE CITY — Today, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced that the University of Utah has been selected to receive $2 million in Brownfields Grants to assess, cleanup and revitalize local lands.
“The Brownfields program is about turning opportunity into action, and the University of Utah has done exactly that,” said Region 8 Administrator Cyrus Western. “This funding is a smart use of resources that reflects our commitment to both economic growth and environmental responsibility.”
Previous environmental site assessments conducted by the University of Utah at the SLC Station Center have identified harmful contamination on the property such as arsenic and volatile organic compounds. The University plans on remediating the soil and groundwater contamination for future commercial reuse in alignment with Salt Lake City’s Community Revitalization Agency’s Rio Grande Plan.
These grants are part of $267 million in Brownfields Grants nationally announced by EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin. This funding put the agency’s commitment to protect human health and the environment into action while remaining good stewards of tax dollars and advancing policies to energize the economy.
Learn more about EPA’s Brownfields and Land Revitalization grant opportunities.
(Renderings from Salt Lake City’s Community Revitalization Agency’s plans for the Rio Grande neighborhood redevelopment)
Background
EPA’s Brownfields Program began in 1995 and has provided nearly $2.9 billion in Brownfields Grants to assess and clean up contaminated properties and return blighted properties to productive reuse. To date, Brownfields investments leveraged more than $42 billion in cleanup and redevelopment. Over the years, the relatively small investment of federal funding was able to leverage, from both public and private sources, more than 220,500 jobs.
A full list of the 2025 applicants selected for funding is available online.
EPA anticipates that it will make these awards once all legal and administrative requirements are satisfied by selected recipients.