The Rhode Island Brownfields Program and Recent State-Funded Grant Opportunities

The beneficial reuse of environmentally contaminated properties in Rhode Island remains a vast opportunity for practitioners to consider grant applications, creative financing, transactional cleanups, and/or Court-supervised cleanups. There are hundreds of re-developed, formerly contaminated sites all over the state of Rhode Island, which can be remediated under the Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management's Brownfields program. In September of 2015, the RIDEM's Brownfields program was significantly enhanced by state administration, providing for grants to conduct investigation and cleanup of contaminated sites. Funds are and will be available for pre-development planning, remedial investigation, redevelopment and marketing plans, remedial design, construction of remedies, and associated work. The trigger for any Brownfields remediation, and in turn, eligibility for funding, continues to be notification of a release of hazardous materials. Once under RIDEM's jurisdiction, any responsible party must adhere to the site remediation site management process. The grant money may be applied to investigation of soil, groundwater, soil gas, indoor air and infrastructure/building materials. Funds are also available for site assessment, remediation, hazardous material abatement, waste disposal, long term monitoring, institutional controls, environmental consulting costs, and marketing. The Brownfields grant program provides new and diverse opportunities for environmental professionals to assist their clients in the Brownfields process.