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THE WHITE HOUSE

Office of the Vice President

For Immediate Release July 15, 1998

             VICE PRESIDENT GORE AWARDS BROWNFIELDS GRANTS 
                  TO 71 COMMUNITIES, EXPANDS EFFORTS 
                    TO REVITALIZE DISTRESSED AREAS

Washington, DC -- Vice President Gore awarded 71 new grants, for over $14 million, today to help communities clean up and redevelop Brownfields -- abandoned, contaminated properties, often found in distressed areas -- and return them to thriving centers of prosperity.

"There is no greater example of the environment and the economy working hand in hand to benefit the American people than the Administration's efforts to clean up and revitalize Brownfields," said Vice President Gore, who announced the new round of Brownfields grants at the White House Community Empowerment Conference. "Across the nation, cities are coming back to life with new jobs, new opportunities, and new hope."

To date, the federal government has awarded 228 Brownfields grants, for over $42 million, to states, cities, towns, counties, and tribes. These grants have leveraged nearly $1 billion for redevelopment and created over 2,000 jobs.

Today's announcement builds on the Administration's efforts to breathe new life, new opportunity, and new hope into the nation's central cities and isolated rural areas. The Brownfields redevelopment efforts are an important part of the President's overall community empowerment agenda.

Since 1993, the Administration has taken significant steps to clean up and redevelop Brownfields and return them to productive use, such as removing legal barriers to redevelopment; creating a national model to determine the best way to revitalize communities; providing a targeted tax incentive to businesses that purchase and cleanup these sites; and providing over $42 million in seed money to 228 communities for revitalization.

The Vice President chairs the Community Empowerment Board, which oversees various initiatives to bring together distressed communities to develop plans for revitalization. The three-day, fourth annual White House Community Empowerment Conference brings together communities to discuss community empowerment strategies.

The Brownfields grants awarded today total about $200,000 for each community. The states, communities and tribes selected to receive the new grants include:

Mansfield, MA
Brockton, MA
Montachusett Regional Planning

Commission, MA
State of Massachusetts
State of New Hampshire
State of Rhode Island
Stamford, CT
Colrain, MA
Middletown, CT
Paterson, NJ
Hudson County, NJ
Atlantic City, NJ
Long Branch, NJ
Morris County, NJ
Middlesex County, NJ
Ulster County, NY
Puerto Rico Ports Authority, PR
Utica, NY
Hagerstown, MD
Ford City, PA
Shenandoah, VA
Washington, DC
Reading, PA
Uniontown, AL
Escambia County, FL
East Point, GA
Oktibbeha County, MS
Burlington, NC
Columbia, SC
Columbia, MS
Southeast Florida
East Moline, IL
Waukegan, IL
Canton, IL
Wayne County, MI
St. Joseph/Benton Harbor/

Benton Charter Township, MI
Ypsilanti, MI
Saginaw, MI
Flint, MI
Cleveland, OH
Youngstown/Campbell/Struthers, OH
Columbus, OH
Hamilton, OH
Toledo, OH
Springfield, OH
Southern Ohio Port Authority, OH
Glendale, WI
Kenosha, WI
Gretna, LA
Bernalillo County, NM
State of New Mexico
Comanche Nation, OK
Brownsville, TX
Rio Grande Council of Governments, TX & NM Clinton, IA
Coralville, IA
Cedar Rapids, IA
Hutchinson, KS
Omaha, NE
Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa, ND
Evanston, WY
Lakewood, CO
State of California
Long Beach, CA
Alameda County, CA
West Hollywood, CA
Montebello, CA
Hoopa Valley Tribe, CA
Ely Shoshone Tribe, NV
Los Angeles, CA
Tri-County Metropolitan Transportation
District, OR