EPA Grants for Century City and Other Efforts

On the same day that Ann Romney campaigned in Milwaukee, the Obama Administration handed out more than $1 million in environmental grants to the city.

About one-third of the $1.3 million in Brownfield Funding will go to clean up petroleum contamination at the Century City business park. That is on the site of a former automotive parts plant. EPA Regional Administrator Susan Hedman says she hopes redevelopment in Century City will become as successful as that in Milwaukee’s Menomonee River Valley, “The valley site is truly a model.”

Century City is in a low-income neighborhood and is already the site of a battle between state Republicans and the city of Milwaukee over the fate of a train carmaker there. The rest of the newly announced EPA money will go toward cleaning up a paint factory, job training in environmental cleanup work, and to start a revolving loan fund to clean up other Milwaukee sites.