IFA: Indiana Brownfields: Indiana Brownfields Program

Brownfields Program

Environmental Protection. Economic Stewardship

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Indiana Brownfields Program

Welcome to the Indiana Brownfields Program. Our mission is to encourage and assist investment in the redevelopment of brownfield properties by helping communities via educational, financial, technical and legal assistance to identify and mitigate environmental barriers that impede local economic growth. To receive updates regarding our Program, you may subscribe (and unsubscribe at any time) to our listserv at the bottom of this and every page under "State Information, Email Updates - GovDelivery" or simply click here.

Items of Interest

Funding Availability for FY 2024 Brownfields Multipurpose, Assessment, and Cleanup Grants

EPA’s Office of Brownfields and Land Revitalization (OBLR) is soliciting applications from eligible entities for Brownfields Multipurpose, Assessment, and Cleanup Grant funding. These Brownfields Grants allow more vacant and abandoned properties to be turned into community assets that will attract jobs and promote economic revitalization in communities.

The application submission deadline is November 13, 2023.

FY 2024 Brownfields Multipurpose, Assessment, RLF, and Cleanup (MARC) Grant Guidelines and Application Resources

Pre-Recorded Videos on Minimum Grant Requirements

EPA has pre-recorded videos to provide an overview of the FY 2024 grants submission process and Narrative Information Sheet and threshold requirements. Please visit the MARC Grant Application Resources page for the recordings and a copy of the presentations.

Live Outreach Webinars

EPA will provide two guideline outreach webinars to assist applicants with understanding the Narrative ranking criteria for the FY 2024 Multipurpose, Assessment, and Cleanup Grant Guidelines.

Note, EPA will not provide an overview of the grant submission process and Narrative Information Sheet and threshold requirements during the live webinars.

Tuesday, September 26, 2023, at 12 PM ET - This webinar will focus on the FY 2024 Narrative ranking criteria for entities applying for:

Multipurpose Grant funding
Community-wide Assessment Grant funding
Assessment Coalition Grant funding
Community-wide Assessment Grants for States and Tribes funding

Please click the link to join the webinar at https://usepa.zoomgov.com/j/1602838047

Or join by telephone: 1-646-828-7666; Webinar ID: 160 283 8047

Wednesday, September 27, 2023, at 1 PM ET - This webinar will focus on the FY 2024 Narrative ranking criteria for entities applying for:

Cleanup Grant funding

Please click the link to join the webinar at https://usepa.zoomgov.com/j/1600119960

Or join by telephone: 1-646-828-7666; Webinar ID: 160 011 9960

A recording of the webinars and the presentations will be made available on the MARC Grant Application Resources at a later date.

If you have questions, please contact the Brownfields Team at brownfields@epa.gov

Indiana Brownfields Program StoryMaps

The Indiana Brownfields Program is excited to share Story Maps it has created for Sites across the state. Story Maps allow us to share success stories by presenting site history, investigation and clean-up activities, and redevelopments in a new and interactive way. To view the Story Map website and explore the various Maps created, please visit:

https://gisdata.in.gov/portal/apps/storymaps/stories/1dd14a1bb6aa403fa83cd2b068448eb0

2023 Brownfield Project Return on Investment (ROI) Survey

The Indiana Brownfields Program is once again collecting important information related to the financial, legal, and technical assistance it provides to our stakeholders. Please complete our survey in one of two ways: 1) Take an on-line survey, or 2) download a fillable PDF form of the survey, complete it, and email it in to the Program. Your feedback is instrumental as we evaluate our services so that we can continue to provide the most beneficial assistance to Indiana communities.

Submit completed surveys to Sara Westrick Corbin of the Indiana Brownfields Program via e-mail at scorbin1@ifa.in.gov. Call 317-234-1688 with any questions. Thank you for participating.

Click this link to take the Secure Online ROI Survey or

Click this link to download a fillable .pdf form ROI Survey

Refer here for the results of the 2022 Brownfields Project ROI Survey.

128(a) Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL) Incentive – Federal Funds

Section 128(a) of the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (“CERCLA”) authorizes EPA to provide funding to States (including US Territories and DC) and Tribes to establish or enhance their environmental response programs. The Indiana Brownfields Program (Program) is offering assessment and remediation funding using 128(a) BIL funds to qualifying applicants and sites on a rolling basis through an application process until funds are fully obligated. Please utilize the Application for 128(a) Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL) Funding to apply.

Community Applicant Form

Upcoming Webinars

Evaluating Plant Uptake of Chemical Contaminants in Crops Grown Near Urban Gardening Sites for Human Health Risk Assessment - August 9, 2023, 1:00PM-3:00PM EDT (17:00-19:00 GMT). This seminar, postponed from July, aims to provide an assessment of the potential exposure routes, plant uptake pathways, and remediation practices of chemicals contaminants found in crops grown in urban gardening sites. It will focus on both inorganic and organic pollutants that are considered contaminants of emerging concern (CECs) by the U.S. EPA. The presence of several trace elements and persistent organic pollutants (POPs) in urban soil media were analyzed on the state-level to quantify the potential contamination risk associated with plant uptake mechanisms by crops commonly grown throughout the various regions of the U.S. CECs exposure routes in urban agriculture (UA) scenarios and associated human health risks are assessed. This seminar also serves to provide potential remediation methods for polluted urban soils, with an emphasis on affordability, accessibility, and sustainability of the methods. For more information and to register, please visit https://clu-in.org/live/

SERDP ESTCP Removal of Munitions Constituents from Wastewater - August 10, 2023, 12:00PM-1:00PM EDT (16:00-17:00 GMT). This webinar will feature DoD-funded research efforts to develop treatment technologies for munitions in wastewater. First, Dr. Jennifer Weidhaas (University of Utah) will present her research results on developing more efficient, cost effective, and sustainable treatment trains for mixed munitions wastewater. Second, Mr. Brian Hubbard (U.S. Army Program Executive Office Ammunition) will discuss the development, scale-up, and results from several field demonstrations of a technology capable of rapidly and completely destroying insensitive munition constituents in explosives production wastewater.For more information and to register, please visit https://serdp-estcp.org/webinars.

PNNL's RemPlex and IAEA “Assessing Environmental Remediation Technologies: Soils” – August 15, 2023, 11:00AM-12:30PM EDT (15:00-16:30 GMT). At any given site, selection of the most appropriate remedial alternative is driven by a variety of environmental, technical, economic, social, regulatory, and policy-driven factors. Panelists Bruce Marvin and Norbert Molitor will discuss aspects of remediation technologies—such as efficiency, effectiveness, sustainability, maturity and availability, complexity, plus long-term maintenance and monitoring requirements—to be considered in the selection of a given soil remediation approach. The seminar will cover technologies that are available to treat a broad array of contaminant categories (radionuclides, metals and organics). For more information and to register, please visit https://www.pnnl.gov/projects/remplex/seminars.

SERDP ESTCP Developing and Demonstrating PFAS Passive Samplers - August 24, 2023, 12:00PM-1:00PM EDT (16:00-17:00 GMT). This webinar will feature DoD-funded research efforts to develop and demonstrate PFAS passive samplers. First, Dr. Lee Blaney (University of Maryland, Baltimore County) will discuss the development and performance of anion exchange membranes as passive samplers for PFAS. Second, Dr. Paul Edmiston (The College of Wooster) will talk about the development of the Sentinel passive sampler and its use for groundwater, surface water, and stormwater monitoring. For more information and to register, please visit https://serdp-estcp.org/webinars.

Recent Advances in Consideration of Ecosystem Services in Contaminated Clean-Ups and Risk Assessments - August 31, 2023, 1:00PM-2:30PM EDT (17:00-18:30 GMT). This webinar will introduce some recent advances in consideration of ecosystem services in contaminated site cleanups. The team will introduce concepts, tools, and example applications. Then the audience will be shown how to find newly available resources and places to turn to for consideration of ecosystem services in their cleanup efforts. For more information and to register, please visit https://clu-in.org/live/

ITRC Optimizing Injection Strategies and In situ Remediation Performance - September 12, 1:00PM-3:15PM EDT (18:00-20:15 GMT). ITRC developed the guidance: Optimizing Injection Strategies and In Situ Remediation Performance (OIS-ISRP-1) and this associated training course to identify challenges that may impede or limit remedy effectiveness and discuss the potential optimization strategies, and specific actions that can be pursued, to improve the performance of in situ remediation by: refining and evaluating remedial design site characterization data; selecting the correct amendment; choosing delivery methods for site-specific conditions; creating design specifications; conducting performance evaluations, and optimizing under-performing in situ remedies. The target audience for this guidance and training course is: environmental consultants, responsible parties, federal and state regulators, as well as community and tribal stakeholders. This training will support users in efficiently and confidently applying the guidance at their remediation sites. An optimization case study is shared to illustrate the use of the associated guidance document. For more information and to register, see https://www.itrcweb.org or https://clu-in.org/live.

Resources:

E-Submissions

The Indiana Brownfields Program (Program) requests electronic submittals (e-submissions) of documents to reduce the need to mail paper documents or submit electronic copies via CD/DVD, flash drive, email or file sharing link. Program staff may, however, still request a hard copy for maps and/or large files.

E-submissions must be less than 75 megabytes (MB). If a file cannot be reduced to less than 75 MB, it should be broken into multiple files. A new e-submission site is available for public use and will replace all other forms as a preferred document submittal method.

The e-submission site is available to individual email addresses and shared email accounts. To request or modify your e-submission access, please use IDEM’s e-Submission Enrollment Form (idem.in.gov/myesubmission) Once enrolled, instructions on how to submit documents will be provided. As a reminder, each form/document/report should be saved as a separate pdf, not as one large document.

Questions regarding the e-submittal process may be directed to Haley Faulds at 317-234-0685 or email hfaulds1@ifa.in.gov.

Arbor Day Foundation Phytoremediation Service

Arbor Day Foundation is now offering no-cost assessments to communities with contaminated sites. Through this assessment, municipal leaders can learn more about whether sites of concern in their community are suitable for cleanup through the planting of trees (phytoremediation). For qualifying sites, Arbor Day Foundation will connect site stakeholders with technical resources to help further assess, quote, design, and implement phytoremediation. This program began in March 2021 and will be conducted on a first-come, first-served basis. For more information or to schedule a meeting about using phytoremediation, check out https://www.arborday.org/partnerships/phytoremediation/?utm_source=press-release&utm_medium=pr&utm_campaign=phytoremediation-summer-2021&Wherefrom=PressRelease.

Site Solicitation for Financial Assistance
The Indiana Brownfields Program (Program) continues to seek sites to evaluate for financial assistance as applicable/appropriate/available. For long-term planning purposes, the Program is interested in learning of brownfield sites in your community that need assessment and/or remediation of hazardous substances and/or petroleum contamination. Please contact the Program to learn how best to help us help you (e.g., U.S. EPA funded TAB Brownfields Inventory Tool per the TAB Program information below).

Read the Brownfields Bulletin Summer 2022 Issue

Opportunity Zones

Opportunity Zones (OZ)s designated in select communities are tax incentives for private investors that can facilitate brownfield redevelopment. Learn more here.

U.S. EPA Brownfields Training, Research, and Technical Assistance grant to Council of Development Finance Agencies (CDFA).
The CDFA Brownfields Technical Assistance program provides support to brownfields communities.
For more information, see http://www.epa.gov/brownfields/pdfs/FY14-K6-Fact-Sheet_CDFA_FINAL.pdf

U.S. EPA-funded Technical Assistance to Brownfields (TAB) Program

for Free assistance with project planning, grant applications, RFPs, contractor selection, etc.

For local site inventory assistance through TAB, check out https://www.ksutab.org/login?ref=BIT

The January 27, 2021 Building a Brownfield Inventory Using BiT webinar materials are now available and linked below.

AGENDA (PDF) SLIDES (PDF) RECORDING (MP4)

This webinar focused on using the KSU TAB Brownfield Inventory Tool (BiT) to quickly, easily, and conveniently keep track of your brownfield site inventory (e.g., number, location, etc.). The webinar highlighted using BiT with its new features, setting up a Project Area, entering site data, building area maps of the brownfield sites in your community, and using the BiT/ACRES interface to report your U.S. EPA Brownfield grant data (as applicable). Stakeholders that would find this valuable include Local Governments, Coalitions, Nonprofits, and Planners.

State Revolving Fund Loan Program Funding:

Brownfield Remediation Nonpoint Source Incentives Fact Sheet

Eligible projects include the cleanup of brownfield sites contaminated with hazardous substances that impact surface or ground water quality. Integrating a brownfield project with a wastewater infrastructure project lowers the interest rate for a loan by up to 0.5 percent, making available additional funds that can be applied to qualified nonpoint source activities.

Tax Incentives that involve the Indiana Brownfields Program.

Tax Incentives that could involve but are outside the Indiana Brownfields Program include Opportunity Zones - learn more here.

U.S. EPA Brownfield Guidance Documents available here on our Resources page. Also, the U.S. EPA guidance web portal that provides links to all of U.S. EPA's active guidance documents is now accessible at https://www.epa.gov/guidance. Note that the guidance documents are organized by U.S. EPA Headquarters and Regional offices, e.g., Office of Land and Emergency Management (OLEM) at Headquarters. Most recent documents are listed first. On the Office page, you’ll also see a text box that includes a link to submit a petition for modification or withdrawal of guidance documents.

Meeting with us?

Downtown Indianapolis Parking & Security Changes
DOWNTOWN PARKING
Due to increases in the number of state employees who work at the Indiana Government Center, especially during the legislative session, public parking in the Senate Avenue and Washington Street Government Center garages has been discontinued.
Anyone visiting the Government Center for meetings or conferences will need to seek other parking options. Information about other downtown parking options can be found at: https://www.downtownindy.org/get-around-downtown/park
Map to Indiana Brownfields Program office