Leesville Awarded $500K Brownfields Grant

After receiving technical assistance from the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality and LaMATS, the City of Leesville has won a $500,000 Brownfields Assessment Grant from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to develop four cleanup plans and support reuse planning and community engagement activities.

“Leesville is important in that there are several properties that could easily be cleaned up and turned into something very productive,” said Dr. John Sutherlin, lead consultant for the LaMATS Brownfields Program. “Half a million dollars will go a long way in terms of assessing properties and putting them back into productive use,” added Sutherlin, whose CAID Group consulting firm partners with LaMATS and the LMA to provide municipalities free initial assessments of sites with potential for grant-funded remediation.

According to the EPA, it’s Brownfields Program grants empower communities to prevent, assess, safely clean up, and sustainably reuse brownfield sites, defined as real properties unsuitable for development due to the presence of a hazardous substance, pollutant, or contaminant.

“We couldn’t be more pleased for Leesville,” said LaMATS Executive Director Cliff Palmer. “We thank Dr. Sutherlin and our fine partners at LDEQ for working with Leesville’s dedicated Mayor Rick Allen and team to make this great opportunity a reality.”

To learn more about LaMATS free brownfields assessment program and how state and federal grants might empower your cleanup efforts, visit lamats.net/brownfields.