EPA Is Using Most of Its Brownfield Funding to Help State, Local, and Tribal Governments Assess Sites and Build Voluntary Cleanup Programs

		Assessment Pilot Projects

EPA funds assessment pilot projects through cooperative agreements with state, local, and tribal governments, which use the funds to assess, identify, characterize, and plan cleanup activities at contaminated sites targeted for redevelopment. Cleanup Revolving Loan Fund

EPA provided financial support to state, local, and tribal governments to help them create revolving loan funds that would provide low-interest loans to public and private entities for site cleanups. Since fiscal year 1993, EPA has allocated a small portion of general funds to make five job training awards, three of them in fiscal year 1997. EPA’s Criteria and Process to Evaluate Unsolicited Proposals for Funds for Its Outreach, Technical Assistance, and Research Program and Job Training Program

Although recipients do not have to compete against each other for funds from either EPA’s outreach, technical assistance, and research program category or its job training program category, the agency has established criteria and set up an approval process to award funds for brownfield activities. EPA’s Outreach and Special Projects Staff awarded funds to nonprofit organizations if their unsolicited proposals addressed one of the following four broad criteria:increase community involvement in brownfields; promote the redevelopment of brownfields; provide for site assessment and cleanup; and promote the principal of sustainable development—that future economic well-being depends on the ability to sustain a healthy environment and productive, renewable natural resources. According to the brownfield program managers, they used the following process to approve the 24 awards we reviewed. This is because, generally, the organization submitting an outreach or job training proposal serves a unique group of constituents that is affected by brownfields or has unique brownfield expertise. EPA guidance allows the agency to use unique qualifications as a justification for a noncompetitive award. Recipients used these awards to provide outreach, technical assistance, research, and job training to support both brownfields specifically and Superfund or other programs more generally. We determined that about $3.7 million of these funds were for the following more specific brownfield activities, although some portion of the activities provided by the remaining funds could also indirectly benefit brownfields: issue reports or other documents on redevelopment activities; sponsor forums, conferences, or other meetings to disseminate research regarding brownfield issues and policies; conduct or sponsor workshops on brownfield issues or policies and on developing environmental curricula for job training related to hazardous waste cleanup; conduct research on brownfield and redevelopment issues, such as insurance coverage for entities conducting cleanups; and establish or develop programs to identify barriers to brownfield development. Project Officers Were Monitoring the Brownfield Grants and Agreements, but the Awards Will Not Likely Be Subject to Financial Audits Because of Their Small Dollar Value

Our review of the files for each of the 24 awards and our interviews with various members of the Outreach and Special Projects Staff responsible for managing some of the individual awards showed that project officers were monitoring recipients’ activities. Specifically, we were to determine (1) what activities EPA supported with the funds it targeted for brownfields in its fiscal years 1997 and 1998 budgets; (2) what criteria and approval process EPA used to award grants and agreements within its program categories for Outreach, Technical Assistance, and Research and Job Training that included brownfield funds or activities since 1993; (3) how recipients used the funds provided by the awards in these two categories; and (4) how EPA monitors and oversees these grants and agreements.
Why GAO Did This Study

Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed the grants and agreements the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) awarded since fiscal year 1993 under two program categories of brownfield expenditures, focusing on the: (1) criteria and process EPA used to award these grants and agreements; (2) uses recipients made of these funds; and (3) monitoring and oversight EPA provided for them.

What GAO Found

GAO noted that: (1) EPA primarily uses its brownfield funds to help state, local, and tribal governments build their capacities to assess, clean up, and revitalize brownfield sites; (2) EPA is using the majority of its $126 million in brownfield funds for fiscal years 1997 and 1998 to: (a) help these groups identify, assess, characterize, and develop clean-up plans for brownfield sites; (b) provide them with seed money to create revolving loan funds that they could use to award low-interest loans for cleanups; (c) support state development of programs that provide incentives for voluntary cleanup of sites, especially brownfields; and (d) provide outreach to groups affected by brownfields, technical assistance to them on clean-up and redevelopment methods, and research for them on brownfield issues; (3) EPA is using the remaining brownfield funds for support and other program activities, such as EPA's personal costs; (4) EPA set up four broad criteria and an approval process to award funds noncompetitively to nonprofit organizations for their unsolicited proposals to provide outreach, technical assistance, research, and job training; (5) the criteria included increasing community involvement at brownfields, promoting redevelopment, providing for site assessments, and sustaining a clean environment for the future; (6) if the proposals met one of the four criteria, the managers responsible for most of the brownfield activities explained that they generally would fund the proposals if the nonprofit organization represented unique constituents affected by brownfields, such as tribes, or offered unique brownfield expertise or experience; (7) although EPA has used the same process and criteria to award a few job training grants and agreements, it is developing a strategic plan to use as criteria for making future awards; (8) since fiscal year 1993, award recipients have used $3.7 million from the 24 outreach and job training awards GAO reviewed to conduct brownfield-specific activities; (9) award recipients used additional funds from the 24 awards for outreach and job training activities in support of the broader Superfund program or other EPA programs, although some of these activities would also indirectly help promote brownfield cleanup and redevelopment; and (10) EPA staff responsible for managing the 24 awards GAO reviewed were monitoring the overall status of the budget for each award and the content and quality of recipients' activities through various means.