The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency awarded 10 grants totaling $5.5 million dollars to Indiana communities and agencies to assess blighted areas known as brownfields.

The grants will allow the selected communities to find out the extent of the contamination of certain brownfields and gather information on what will be needed to clean it up.

The grants are part of $254.5 million in brownfields grants awarded to 265 communities through the 2021 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act.

“With today’s announcement, we’re turning blight into might for communities across America,” said EPA Administrator Michael S. Regan. “EPA’s Brownfields Program breathes new life into communities by helping to turn contaminated and potentially dangerous sites into productive economic contributors. Thanks to President Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, we are significantly ramping up our investments in communities, with the bulk of our funding going to places that have been overburdened and underserved for far too long.”

EAST CENTRAL INDIANA REGIONAL PLANNING DISTRICT - $500,000

The East Central Indiana Regional Planning District, the regional planning district serving Delaware, Grant and Blackford Counties, and the city of Portland, received $500,000 to assess four brownfield sites in Muncie.

The grant will help assess potential environmental and health threats at a 75-acre former glass bottle coating site at 1509 S. Macedonia with 19 buildings believed to be contaminated with volatile organic compounds, PCBs, lead and arsenic.

The grant will also help assess three vacant buildings in the Whitely neighborhood that were formerly gas stations, muffler shops and dry cleaners. The buildings have underground storage tanks with gasoline and oil and are suspected of being contaminated with PCE, VOCs, chlorinated solvents and metals and asbestos.

The site of a former gas station in the McKinley neighborhood and an abandoned 6-acre site of a former machine tool manufacturing facility suspected of being contaminated with hexavalent chromium, a cancer-causing compound, will also be assessed.

TOWN OF FORTVILLE - $305,700

The Town of Fortville, located in Hancock County, received a $305,700 brownfields grant to assess at least five vacant or underutilized commercial and industrial sites in the southeastern part of the town.

The grant will help assess two former gas stations, a former auto repair facility and a former towing company site along West Broadway Street, and a former gas station on West Garden Street believed to be contaminated with petroleum, asbestos, metals, VOCs and carcinogenic polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, or PAHs.

INDIANA FINANCE AUTHORITY - $2,000,000 GRANT/$3,900,000 SUPPLEMENTAL FUNDING

The Indiana Finance Authority received a $2 million brownfields grant to assess five brownfield sites throughout the state and $3.9 million in supplemental funding.

The grant will support assessments of the sites where contamination from PCBs, heavy metal, PAHs and dioxin is suspected, including the former Lafayette Paperboard Property in Lafayette; the Industrial Cinders Landfill Property in Gary; the Frankfort Roundhouse Property in Frankfort; the Heidelbach Property in Evansville; and the Virbac Inc. Property in New Castle.

The IFA received $3.9 million in supplemental funding for the State Revolving Fund, which provides grants and low interest loans to fund infrastructure projects throughout the state.

LEBANON - $150,000

The City of Lebanon was awarded $150,000 to assess at least two brownfields sites, the former Irving Materials Inc. concrete plant and the former Lenox Lincoln Mercury Dealership.

The sites are known to be contaminated with asbestos, lead-based paint, PCBs, PAHs and volatile organic compounds.

MARTINSVILLE - $400,300

The City of Martinsville was awarded $400,300 to assess at least five brownfields sites in the southern part of the city potentially contaminated by asbestos, heavy metals, VOCs, PAHs and herbicides.

The sites include the former Tuscarora Plastics facility, the former Harman-Becker site, the former Rogers Block Plant, Crone Lumber and the former Supermarket Fuel & Food site.

MICHIANA AREA COUNCIL OF GOVERNMENTS - $500,000

The Michiana Area Council of Governments, a regional planning organization for St. Joseph, Elkhart, Kosciusko and Marshall Counties, was awarded $500,000 to assess brownfields sites in South Bend and Elkhart.

In South Bend, the council will assess a former industrial area a mile west of the city’s downtown area it describes as “predominated by overgrown vacant lots, dilapidated homes and crumbling industrial buildings,” including the former Oil Express site at 1510 W. Washington St.

The site is believed to be contaminated with VOCs, PAHs, PCBs and lead.

In Elkhart, the council will assess the former Roundhouse locomotive repair facility, a site that is now an overgrown lot but once housed a dry cleaner, machine shop, trucking depot and gas station.

The site is a half mile from downtown Elkhart and is suspected of being contaminated with petroleum, VOCs and heavy metals in both soil and groundwater. The council also hopes to assess the site for PFAS chemicals.

MICHIGAN CITY SANITARY DISTRICT - $400,450

The Michigan City Sanitary District was awarded $400,450 to assess five priority sites along the city’s Northwest Corridor and South Gateway Corridor suspected of being contaminated with petroleum, asbestos, lead paint, heavy metals, VOCs and PAHs.

The sites include underutilized buildings near the Brandts Pet Supply Outlet Store, the former McKay Printing facility, the former Ameriplex facility, the former Marquette Mall and the former Chair Factory.

SEYMOUR - $500,000

The City of Seymour was awarded $500,000 to assess five sites suspected of being contaminated with petroleum, asbestos, heavy metals, VOCs and PAHs.

The sites include the former Georges Tire, a former tire shop on a now-vacant lot on East 3rd Street, a former gas station, a former auto body shop and the former Kieffer Paper Mill.

SULLIVAN - $305,700

The City of Sullivan was awarded $305,700 to assess five sites near the city’s downtown believed to be contaminated with PCBs, heavy metals, VOCs, asbestos, lead paint and petroleum.

The sites include the former auto salvage and scrap yard at 548 S. Main St., the former Globe Cleaners, an industrial site with an unknown background at 320 N. Court St., a former gas station at 207 N. Section St. and a former appliance repair shop at 498 S. Section St.

WEST CENTRAL INDIANA ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT DISTRICT - $400,000

The West Central Indiana Economic Development District was awarded $400,000 for the assessment of three sites in Vermillion County suspected of being contaminated with PAHs, VOCs, lead, asbestos, PCBs and petrochemicals.

The sites include a former gas station in Cayuga 250 feet from the Vermillion County Fairgrounds, a 32-acre unregulated landfill in Eugene adjacent to the historic Eugene Covered Bridge and a crumbling abandoned gas station in St. Bernice.