[CPEO-BIF] Iowa "Cities missing out when cleaning land"

[Lenny Siegel <lennysiegel@gmail.com>]

Cities missing out when cleaning land

by MacKenzie Elmer
Special to IowaWatch
Iowa City Press-Citizen
September 16, 2012

About 4,000 potentially contaminated and abandoned parcels of land  
across Iowa could be flipped for economic development, but hardly any  
will use government money that exists for such a cleanup.

Iowa cities and counties are not tapping into programs that would pay  
the costs of cleaning up these blighted, brownfield areas. Some city  
councils and others in local government leadership do not even know  
the programs exist, an IowaWatch investigation revealed.

When they do, many avoid the federal government’s brownfield cleanup  
program because applying for a grant has proved to be a daunting  
task. A paid consultant usually is needed to wade through the dense,  
time-consuming - but required - paperwork. In addition, many cities  
and towns do not have the money needed to apply.

...

For the entire article, see
http://www.press-citizen.com/article/20120916/NEWS01/309160002/Cities- 
missing-out-when-cleaning-land

--

Lenny Siegel
Executive Director, Center for Public Environmental Oversight
a project of the Pacific Studies Center
278-A Hope Street, Mountain View, CA 94041
Voice: 650-961-8918 or 650-969-1545
Fax: 650-961-8918
<lsiegel@cpeo.org>
http://www.cpeo.org
 
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