May 27, 2017 By Mike Tony mtony@heraldstandard.Com 3 min read

Westmoreland County’s brownfields must be transformed if the tax coffers of communities throughout the county are to garner a little more green.

That’s the goal of the Westmoreland County Redevelopment Authority’s Brownfield Assessment Program, which works with communities to reuse brownfields.

And that goal got a little easier this week, as the authority announced Tuesday that it is the recipient of a $600,000 federal grant from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to perform environmental assessments countywide in an effort to address brownfield sites.

Brownfields include properties that are contaminated or perceived to be contaminated. Examples include abandoned gas stations and dry cleaners, industrial properties, strip malls, factories, and closed military bases.

Authority Executive Director April Kopas said she wants to see new businesses eventually come to redeveloped brownfield sites and help contribute to an expanded tax base over time.

“You want to see the sites getting to full redevelopment,” Kopas said.

The EPA grant will cover hazardous substance and petroleum sites. Kopas noted the potential to assess and redevelop sites of abandoned gas stations or other petroleum sites.

The grant is to fund Phase I and Phase II environmental assessments and cleanup plans. Community-wide hazardous substances grant funding will be used to facilitate up to 10 Phase I and six Phase II environmental site assessments, while community-wide petroleum grant funds will be used to perform up to five Phase I and three Phase II environmental site assessments.

Kopas said Phase I typically consists of reviewing past uses at the site, generally costing between $3,000 and $5,000 to complete. Phase II involves more in-depth sampling of elements at the site and accordingly costs a great deal more.

“You want to have these assessments done so you can see what you can and can’t do on the property,” Kopas said, adding that the environmental assessments don’t cover site remediation but instead provide a roadmap for reuse.

The authority received $500,000 in 2015 and performed Phase I and Phase II environmental assessments for sites in Mount Pleasant and Monessen, as well as Greensburg, Jeannette and Latrobe.

Kopas cited an approximately $77,000 sampling-intensive assessment done on a borough-owned site near Bridgeport Street in Mount Pleasant and a roughly $16,000 assessment of a site off Donner Avenue she said had sat idle as a forgotten parcel in a Monessen riverfront redevelopment plan.

“Everyone’s open to apply,” Kopas said.

Project funding is determined by an advisory board including representation for Mount Pleasant borough as well as the cities of Jeannette and Latrobe.

Duquesne-based KU Resources will perform the environmental assessments and be reimbursed through the EPA grant for that service.

“To actually implement the assessments … that’s always the goal,” Kopas said.