[Federal Register Volume 83, Number 123 (Tuesday, June 26, 2018)]
[Notices]
[Pages 29782-29783]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2018-13719]


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ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY

[FRL-9979-38-OLEM]


Brownfields Utilization, Investment and Local Development (BUILD) 
Act

AGENCY: Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

ACTION: Notice.

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SUMMARY: The Brownfields Utilization, Investment, and Local Development 
(BUILD) Act was enacted on March 23, 2018 as part of the Consolidated 
Appropriations Act, 2018. The BUILD Act reauthorized the Environmental 
Protection Agency's (EPA's) Brownfields Program, and made amendments to 
the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability 
Act (CERCLA), as amended by the 2002 Small Business Liability Relief 
and Brownfields Revitalization Act. These amendments affect brownfields 
grants, ownership and liability provisions, and State & Tribal Response 
Programs. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is developing 
policy and guidance to implement the BUILD Act amendments. As part of 
this process, the EPA is soliciting comment on three provisions in the 
BUILD Act: The authority to increase the per-site cleanup grant amounts 
to $500,000, the new multi-purpose grant authority, and the new small 
community assistance grant authority.

[[Page 29783]]


DATES: Comments will be accepted through July 10, 2018.

ADDRESSES: Please send any comments to [email protected] no later than 
July 10, 2018.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Rachel Lentz, U.S. EPA, (202) 566-
2745, [email protected] or Megan Quinn, U.S. EPA, (202) 566-2773, 
[email protected].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Publication of this notice will start a two-
week comment period for stakeholders to respond to the questions 
included in this notice. Comments will be accepted through July 10, 
2018. EPA expects to develop policy on these three grant programs and 
incorporate them into the Agency's guidelines for the FY 2019 
brownfields grant cycle.

Background

    The Brownfields Utilization, Investment, and Local Development 
(BUILD) Act was enacted on March 23, 2018 as part of the Consolidated 
Appropriations Act, 2018. The BUILD Act reauthorized the EPA's 
Brownfields Program, and made amendments to CERCLA, as amended by the 
2002 Small Business Liability Relief and Brownfields Revitalization 
Act. These amendments affect brownfields grants, ownership and 
liability provisions, and State & Tribal Response Programs. The EPA is 
developing policy and guidance to implement the BUILD Act. As part of 
that process, the EPA is soliciting comment on three provisions in the 
BUILD Act: The authority to increase the per site cleanup grant amounts 
to $500,000, the new multi-purpose grant authority, and the new small 
community assistance grant authority.

Cleanup Grant Policy

    The BUILD Act amended CERCLA Section 104(k)(3)(A)(ii) to increase 
the ceiling for brownfields cleanup grant funding from $200,000 to 
$500,000 per site; eligible entities can request a waiver up to 
$650,000 per site, based on the anticipated level of contamination, 
size, or ownership status of the site. The applicant must own the site 
to expend any resources on cleanup at the site. The Agency's primary 
concern is one of community access to brownfields cleanup funds. 
Increasing the amount of single cleanup grants will most likely 
decrease the total number of grants that may be awarded in any given 
fiscal year, therefore decreasing the number of brownfield sites 
cleaned-up and communities served, particularly when annual 
appropriations remain level or decrease.
    Given these parameters, the Agency is interested in receiving 
comments from communities and other stakeholders on the following 
considerations:
    1. If a community receives a $500,000 cleanup grant, how likely is 
it that the community could meet the 20 percent cost share statutory 
requirement (CERCLA 104(k)(10)(B)(iii))? How would communities meet the 
20 percent cost share requirement? Do stakeholders support a higher per 
grant funding amount, with cost share requirement of less than 20 
percent, even if the result is fewer communities will receive 
brownfields cleanup grants?
    2. In your community's experience, how long does the average 
brownfield cleanup take to complete? Please provide information on the 
average length of time, including from the time of state review and 
approval of a clean-up plan to the time when the brownfield site is 
ready for reuse. What are the barriers your community experiences in 
getting a brownfield site cleaned up and ready for reuse?

Multipurpose Grant Policy

    The BUILD Act established a new Multipurpose Brownfield Grant 
program. Under this new authority, EPA may provide a maximum of $1 
million in funding per grant to an eligible entity to inventory, 
characterize, assess, plan for or remediate one or more brownfield 
sites within a target area. The statute requires that a Multipurpose 
Grant recipient own the brownfields property prior to expending grant 
resources to remediate the property. The grant funding may be made 
available to a grant recipient for a maximum of five years. While the 
EPA has authority to award multipurpose grants up to $1,000,000, the 
EPA is considering piloting the grants at no more than $700,000.
    Given these parameters, the Agency is interested in receiving 
comments from communities and other stakeholders on the following 
considerations:
    1. Do communities most need funding for brownfields inventory, 
planning, site assessment or site remediation activities?
    2. Do communities typically have in place an ``overall plan for 
revitalization of the one or more brownfields within the proposed area 
in which the multipurpose grant will be used'' or would they most 
likely need to create this plan using multipurpose grant funds?
    3. What is a reasonable number of accomplishments (e.g., 
brownfields site assessments and site cleanups) to expect from a grant 
recipient that receives a $700,000 multipurpose grant over a five-year 
grant period?
    4. What complications and barriers will affect a grant recipient's 
ability to achieve these accomplishments?

128(a) Small Grant Policy

    The BUILD Act added a new authority for the EPA to make grants to 
states and tribes to provide training, technical assistance or research 
assistance to support a small or disadvantaged community up to $20,000 
per community. Site specific assessment and cleanup activities are not 
allowable expenditures under this grant authority. The EPA is 
developing further guidance on (1) the types of activities that are 
eligible expenses (including examples of such activities) and (2) the 
evaluation criteria that the EPA will use for evaluating and selecting 
proposals.
    Accordingly, the EPA is soliciting comment on the following issues:
    1. The EPA anticipates that state and tribes may provide the 
following activities to small and disadvantaged communities under this 
grant: Brownfields outreach and education, technical support, economic 
or market analyses to support the identification of reuse options for a 
brownfield site, the implementation or use of the EPA's Land 
Revitalization tools, and preparation of a needs assessment for 
developing a Tribal Response Program. What other types of activities 
should be considered as eligible expenditures under this grant program?
    2. The EPA plans to include the following evaluation criteria for 
proposals submitted under this grant program: Description of the target 
community, description/purpose of the proposed project, expected 
outcomes, description of key activities, what entity will be conducting 
the activities (e.g., state, tribe, contractor), leveraged resources 
being provided (as necessary), approximate timeline for completing the 
eligible activities, the amount of funding requested, an explanation of 
why existing state and tribal funding is inadequate to conduct or 
complete the eligible activities, and a demonstration of support from 
the community that will benefit from the funded activity. What other 
types of evaluation criteria may be useful for the EPA to use when 
evaluating proposals and selecting grant recipients?

    Dated: June 6, 2018.
David R. Lloyd,
Director, Office of Brownfields and Land Revitalization, Office of Land 
and Emergency Management.
[FR Doc. 2018-13719 Filed 6-25-18; 8:45 am]
 BILLING CODE 6560-50-P


