EPA to Present Mason City with $500K Check for Brownfields Grant

On Wednesday, June 14, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Region 7 will present a $500,000 ceremonial check to the City of Mason City, Iowa. The city will host the ceremony at the River II Apartments located at 215 2nd Street SW.

EPA has selected the City of Mason City for a Brownfields Assessment Grant. Community-wide grant funds will be used to conduct 15 Phase I and eight Phase II environmental site assessments. Grant funds also will be used to prepare a brownfield site inventory, support reuse planning, and community outreach activities.

The target area for this grant is the City of Mason City with a focus on its urban core. Priority sites include a blighted strip mall, a 9-acre vacant site that formerly manufactured steel doors, and a half-acre vacant site that once housed a foundry.

These investments are part of President Biden’s Investing in America Agenda to grow the American economy from the bottom up and middle-out – from rebuilding our nation’s infrastructure, to driving over $470 billion in private-sector manufacturing and clean-energy investments in the United States, to creating a manufacturing and innovation boom powered by good-paying jobs that don’t require a four-year degree, to building a clean-energy economy that will combat climate change and make our communities more resilient.

“EPA is proud to partner with the City of Mason City for the first time through our Brownfields Program,” said EPA Region 7 Land, Chemical, and Redevelopment Division Director Jeff Robichaud. “This grant will add to the city’s ongoing efforts to provide a cleaner environment and spur economic growth in the region.”

“Mason City is no stranger to the benefits of brownfield redevelopment,” said City Administrator Aaron Burnett. “With the award of U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Community-Wide Assessment funding, the city’s brownfield redevelopment objectives can proceed at a geographically broader, much more invigorated and expeditious level, providing nearer term benefits to both the city’s Opportunity Zone and Justice40 Disadvantaged Community areas.”