ASEPA receives first ever $300K grant under
Brownsfields Program
The American Samoa Environmental Protection Agency (ASEPA) has received, for the first time ever, a grant award of $300,000 under the new "Brownsfields" program for the assessment and inventories of sites on Tutuila and Manu'a that are potentially contaminated with industrial and hazardous wastes.
The grant was recently awarded by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Region IX (San Francisco).
The program, called "Brownsfields", is new to the ASEPA and this is the first grant of its kind for the Territory.
ASEPA director Fanuatele Dr. To'afa Vaiaga'e is excited about the award, which he said has been enjoyed by other US territories like Guam and the Commonwealth of the Northern Marianas Islands (CNMI) in the past years.
He explained that the reason why the territory never received the award before was because an application was never submitted for it.
According to Fanuatele, it was when he attended a meeting with several colleagues from Region IX two years ago that he heard about the program. Shortly thereafter, Carl Goldstein, a consultant from USEPA's Region IX who works closely with the ASEPA got the ball rolling by working together with several counterparts from Guam and CNMI to draft up a proposal for American Samoa.
Fanuatele said that assistance was sought from Guam and CNMI as they are similar to the territory as far as geographical location and weather conditions.
Fanuatele is proud of the fact that ASEPA managed to secure the grant funding after applying for the first time ever last year.
"I just want to recognize the efforts of Carl Goldstein, the good folks at Region IX, and of course, my local staff here at the ASEPA office that made this all possible," a proud Fanuatele remarked.
He added that the grant funding is an annual thing, meaning that the ASEPA anticipates to apply for it every year from now on. Fanuatele concluded, "This is a lot of money that we can use for the operations of the local ASEPA office. We here at the ASEPA are doing everything we can to provide the people of American Samoa with quality service and this money helps us do just that."
It is expected that the grant money will be increased every year.
The ASEPA will use the funding to conduct community outreach activities, and to survey, inventory, and conduct assessments for potential sites in American Samoa that may require cleanup and re-development efforts.
The Brownsfield program encourages re-development of America's estimated 450,000 abandoned and contaminated waste sites.
According to the ASEPA, since the beginning of the program, the USEPA has awarded 1.067 assessment grants totaling more than $262 million, 217 revolving loan fund grants totaling more than $201.7 million, and 336 cleanup grants totaling $61.3 million.
In addition to industrial and commercial re-development, Brownsfields approaches have included the conversion of industrial waterfronts to river-front parks, landfills to golf courses, rail corridors to recreational trails, and gas stations to housing.
USEPA's Brownsfields assistance has leveraged more than $9.6 billion in cleanup and re-development, helped create more than 43.029 jobs, resulted in the assessment of more than 10,504 properties, and cleanup of 180 properties.
Lt. Matthew Vojik, a US Public Health Service engineer who is detailed to the ASEPA, is assigned as the ASEPA Brownsfields program manager. Lt. Vojik will coordinate Brownsfields objectives with ASEPA Air & Land Program Manager Fa'amao Asalele, and ASEPA director Fanuatele Vaiaga'e who pursued the development and implementation of the Brownsfields Program for the past two years.
More information on the Brownsfields Program can be found by visiting http://www.epa.gov/brownsfields or contacting Lt. Vojik or Fa'amao Asalele directly at 633-2304.
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