The federal Environmental Protection Agency is giving 450-thousand dollars to clean-up three polluted places in Iowa. The EPA’s Patrick Bustos says they’re projects that have already been selected, and need a closer look. He says it’s to find what’s “out there” environmentally, what kind of challenge there might at these brownfield sites. A brownfield that was once badly contaminated will need more cleanup if it’s to become a park, playground or residential neighborhood, less if it will be paved for a commercial area. Bustos says this money’s for environmental assessment.The idea’s to look and see what’s there, so if a town goes after a developer with a plan, their question will be whether there are environmental concerns, and the community will have the answer to that. If a developer comes in with a plan the communities will be able to say if it’ll work, and what kind of cleanup would be needed for that site to make it suitable for that kind of plan. The city of Dubuque’s getting 200-thousand dollars for an assessment pilot, the city of Waterloo’s getting 150-thousand dollars, and the city of Coralville gets 100-thousand from the EPA.
