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EPA Announces $200,000 Brownfields Job Training Grant to Goodwill Industries

Release Date: 12/22/2005
Contact Information: David Sternberg, (215) 814-5548

PHILADELPHIA - The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency today announced the selection of Goodwill Industries of Conemaugh Valley Inc. to receive a $200,000 brownfields job training grant. Goodwill Industries will train 40 people, providing skills for them to gain employment in the clean up and redevelopment of brownfields.

Goodwill Industries will work in partnership with the Pennsylvania Highlands Community College and the Greater Johnstown Career and Technology Center. Courses will be offered in environmental geology, hazardous site worker training, environmental sampling and monitoring, hazardous materials management, and mobile equipment safety and handling.

The grant was one of 12 grants announced nationally today which teach environmental cleanup skills to people living in low income areas near brownfield sites. Since 1998, EPA has awarded $17.3 million in brownfields job training grants. More than 2,600 people have completed the training and over 1,600 have obtained jobs in the environmental field, earning an average wage of $13 per hour.

The Brownfields Job Training Program gives people in brownfields-affected communities skills to obtain employment in the environmental field, so that they benefit from brownfields redevelopment.

EPA’s Brownfields program encourages redevelopment of America’s estimated 450,000 abandoned and contaminated waste sites. Since the beginning of the Brownfields program, EPA has awarded more than 850 assessment grants totaling approximately $220 million, more than 200 revolving loan fund grants totaling more than $183 million. More than 230 cleanup grants totaling approximately $42 million have also been awarded. EPA’s Brownfield assistance has leveraged more than $7.2 billion in private investment and attracted more than 34,000 jobs.