Florida Asset Protection News

EPA Awards Over $10.3 million in Grants to Pacific Southwest Groups

(5/12/06) SAN FRANCISCO-- Today the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency awarded over $10.3 million to Pacific Southwest groups for assessment, inventory, redevelopment and cleanup of properties that have sat idle due to perceived or real contamination. The funds will help pay for projects in Californa, Arizona, Nevada, Hawaii, and the Pacific Islands, where grant recipients are working to redevelop “brownfield” properties. Today’s awards were part of $69.9 million in brownfields grants given out to communities throughout the country.

“Today’s grants will help speed the cleanup and redevelopment of properties, providing jobs and helping revitalize neighborhoods,” said Wayne Nastri, administrator of the U.S. EPA’s Pacific Southwest Region. “The brownfields program enables communities to develop idle land into productive community assets.”

The brownfields program encourages turning America's estimated 450,000 problem properties to productive community use. Since the beginning of the brownfields program, the EPA has awarded 883 assessment grants totaling $225.4 million, 202 revolving loan fund grants totaling $186.7 million, and 238 cleanup grants totaling $42.7 million. In addition to industrial and commercial redevelopment, brownfields approaches have included the conversion of industrial waterfronts to river-front parks, landfills to golf courses, rail corridors to recreational trails, and gas stations to housing. EPA's brownfields assistance has leveraged more than $8.2 billion in private investment, helped create 37,525 jobs and resulted in the assessment of 8,374 properties and the cleanup of 93 properties.

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	Did You Know?
	A Living Trust is an entity created for the purpose of holding and managing assets A Living Trust is an entity created for the purpose of holding and managing assets for the benefit of the creators of the Trust (the “Trustors”) during their lifetimes and then for the purpose of management and distribution of the assets to the beneficiaries designated by the Trustors. There are various reasons for creating Living Trusts: (a) To avoid probate administration on death of either Trustor. (b) To avoid a court supervised conservatorship in the event of lifetime disability of either Trustor. (c) To provide for the management and distribution of assets during continued administration of the Trust or upon its termination.