The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has awarded a $500,000 brownfields assessment grant to the Great Falls Development Authority to conduct environmental site assessments and develop reuse plans at more than a dozen locations across Cascade County.

EPA’s award to GFDA is among six grants totaling more than $5.7 million for cleanup and revitalization projects across Montana.

The funds are part of President Biden’s Investing in America Agenda to expedite the assessment and cleanup of brownfield sites while advancing environmental justice through the Multipurpose, Assessment, Revolving Loan Fund, and Cleanup (MARC) Grant programs.

GFDA is using the EPA funding for, but not limited to, the following sites:

• Energy West Gas Manufacturing Plant
• Former Dick Grieb Buick
• Quality Life Concepts
• Westside Animal Clinic
• Discount Parts, Belt
• Antiques Café, Sun River

Contaminants associated with the properties listed above include gasoline and diesel fuels, metals, pesticides, wood treatment chemicals, asbestos, lead-based-paint and methamphetamine.

GFDA has identified several reuse opportunities for these sites, such as cleanup of potential petroleum contamination at the Dick Grieb Buick property that will remove obstacles to redevelopment opportunities as a storefront and residential housing.

Other brownfields grants in Montana include:   

• Sweetgrass Development Corporation, north-central Montana: $1 million
• Montana West Economic Development Foundation, Inc, Kalispell, Flathead County: $500,000
• Big Sky Economic Development, Billings: $1 million
• Great Northern Development Corporation, Glendive: $2,250,000
• Beartooth Resource Conservation and Development, Stillwater, Carbon and Big Horn Counties and the Northern Cheyenne and Crow Indian Reservations: $460,000