News Release

SOUTH BEND — The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has announced that the Michiana Area Council of Governments is one of three Indiana recipients that will receive brownfields assessment funding in the latest round announced Monday, May 20.

Crawfordsville and DeKalb County also received assessment funding, the Indiana Finance Authority received revolving loan funding and the Fort Wayne Redevelopment Authority received cleanup funding. Nationwide, a total of 181 grants for $231 million were announced, which will be used to assess, clean up and redevelop underutilized properties while protecting public health and the environment.

MACOG will receive a $1.5 million grant to conduct up to 27 Phase I and up to 35 Phase II environmental site assessments over the next four years in Elkhart, Kosciusko, Marshall and St. Joseph counties. MACOG will also develop cleanup and reuse plans and conduct community engagement activities. MACOG will continue to partner with its member counties and add the Tolson Center for Community Excellence to the Regional Brownfields Coalition efforts.

The target areas for this grant are the Benham neighborhood in the city of Elkhart; the Kennedy Park neighborhood in the city of South Bend; the Tinkey Oil site in the city of Warsaw; and small towns with a population of fewer than 5,000, such as the town of Argos.

“MACOG is excited to continue our momentum in advancing brownfields redevelopment. Our Regional Brownfields Coalition is addressing environmental uncertainty allowing for the redevelopment of sites that would otherwise continue to languish. Our ongoing efforts since 2019 are making a difference, evidenced by housing projects under construction or completed in Elkhart, Goshen, Plymouth, South Bend and Warsaw,” said MACOG Executive Director James Turnwald.

The grant programs will help transform once-polluted, vacant and abandoned properties into community assets, while helping to create jobs and spur economic revitalization in overburdened communities, according to the EPA news release.

Read more at epa.gov/brownfields/applications-selected-fy-2024-brownfields-multipurpose-assessment-cleanup-grants-rlf. To learn more about upcoming events in the MACOG region and submit sites of interest for funding, visit http://www.macog.com/brownfields.html.