January 16, 2025 • 33 mins
The conversation focuses on the dramatic evolution of brownfield funding through recent legislation, highlighting how communities can leverage new resources to revitalize and restore contaminated sites. Chris Gdak shares insights on the successes and challenges within the EPA's brownfield programs, shedding light on future directions for funding initiatives.
• Discussion on the evolution of EPA's Brownfield Grant Program
• Impact of Bipartisan Infrastructure Law on funding levels
• Historical context of brownfield funding across administrations
• Insights on the success of recent projects and funding distribution
• Growing emphasis on environmental justice and community accessibility
• Strategies for communities to prepare for future funding opportunities
• Anticipated challenges and competitiveness post-BIL funding era
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to a new and special feature of
Sustainability Unveiled IndustryVoices a conversation with.
In this episode, jessica Huntsits down with Chris Gaddak from
Montrose Environmental Group.
Sit back and enjoy theirconversation about Brownfields
funding.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
Go from there.
Okay, good morning, afternoon,evening, from wherever you are
joining us today.
My name is Jessica Hunt and itis a pleasure to welcome you to
today's event, today'sdiscussion.
Before we begin, if you do havequestions for Chris or another
member of his team, please feelfree to submit those using the
Q&A widget at the bottom of yourscreen or via the survey that
(00:50):
will pop up at the end oftoday's discussion.
We will make sure that all ofthose questions get over to the
team at Montrose as soon aspossible.
Joining me today is Chris Jadak,the Brownfields and Community
Revitalization Practice Leaderat Montrose Environmental Group,
(01:11):
and, as always, it is apleasure to work with any member
of the team from Montrose.
Chris has over 22 years inenvironmental consulting and
Brownfield redevelopment.
He has been instrumental inassisting municipal, tribal and
community-based organizationsacross more than 20 states.
His expertise lies in securingand leveraging grants, loans and
(01:32):
other incentives to supportenvironmental site assessments,
cleanups, restorations andcapital improvement projects and
to date, his team, with a 100%success rate, has secured over
$37 million in client fundingand we are so unbelievably
pleased to have him here today.
(01:53):
And the focus in case you havejust registered and you don't
know too much about today'sevent is on the evolution of the
EPA's Brownfield andEnvironmental Justice Programs
over the past twoadministrations.
So we're going to analyze theimpacts of significant
legislation such as theBipartisan Infrastructure Law
and the Inflation Reduction Act,which have infused substantial
(02:15):
funding into these programs, andwe're also going to explore
potential future directions,because I know a lot of
individuals do have questionsabout the state of Brownfield's
fundings, considering theoutcomes of our recent federal
elections in the United States.
So I've talked enough alreadyat this point.
(02:36):
So at this point I'm going tohave Chris tell us a little bit
about yourself that I haven'tmentioned already and before we
really jump into the meat of thediscussion.
Speaker 3 (02:47):
Thank you, jessica, that was a great introduction.
As advertised, I've spent thelast 20 years of my career as a
consulting, helping communitiesbuild hopefully successful
restoration and revitalizationprograms, and over the last 18
months that has brought me tobeing the practice leader at
(03:09):
Montrose.
I've been lucky enough to,through this work, support
clients in a diversity of urbanand rural environments,
including projects in over 40states and all 10 of EPA's
regions.
The focus of the work ishelping communities develop
plans to restore brownfields andrevitalize neighborhoods, and
(03:33):
that involves exploring avariety of state and federal
grant programs and localincentives to support the
restoration and revitalizationprocess.
You know there has been a lotof changes recently over the
past two administrations withlevel of funding available
through two key programs thathelp clients navigate, which are
(03:56):
the EPA Brownfield Grants andthe EPA Environmental Justice
Program environmental justiceprogram.
And so, with the recent federalelections and a second Trump
term on the horizon, many folksin our industry are wondering
(04:17):
what the next four years arelike.
So in this State of the Uniondiscussion, I thought we'd
examine what's been going on,what the State of the Union is,
and kind of get the crystal ballout and see which direction we
think things are going to go inthe next four years and beyond,
and I have to put a disclaimerin here I'm not a lobbyist,
(04:39):
lawyer, politician or prophet,but I do have a degree in civil
environmental engineering and 24years of experience, so I've
got opinions and perspectives.
I also have Google and chat CPTto help me through everything,
so I'm happy to be here andexcited to get into it.
Speaker 2 (04:56):
Yeah, no, we're extremely excited to have you on
with us today, and I know thatthere are so many different
aspects of brownfields that wecould cover.
And this is a short discussionwhich hopefully will continue
later, into 2025, too.
So let's jump in, let's getstarted, and you mentioned the
EPA brownfield grant, so can yougive us just a brief overview
(05:20):
of what that looks like forthose who might not know some of
the specifics?
Speaker 3 (05:25):
view of what that looks like for those who might
not know.
You know some of the specifics,certainly, and I will say we
are putting together a blog thatwe're going to issue in the
next 10 days that's going tohave some graphs and statistics
in that, so you might not haveto write too feverishly if
you're trying to take notes andtrying to absorb a lot of
information.
Speaker 2 (05:39):
And before you jump in, I will say for anyone who's
attending don't take notes, justlisten, because you'll be able
to go back and rewatch ourconversation.
Speaker 3 (05:54):
So really you know, enjoy the discussion and save
your notes for when you rewatchit Right on EPA Brownfield Grant
.
So let's give a brief overviewhere.
So the EPA Brownfield Grantprogram has actually been going
on since the mid-1990s.
It was formally signed into lawin 2002 under the George Bush
administration.
Generally there's this annualcompetition where grant
(06:15):
applications are due in the falland awards are announced in the
spring.
The grants generally have likea four to five year
implementation period onceyou're awarded, to use the funds
in the community to inventory,assess, get community
stakeholder involvement and doreuse plans around brownfield
(06:37):
restoration and revitalization.
The funding levels haveactually historically been very
consistent over the past 30years.
Generally, annualappropriations for EPA
brownfield grants have ranged inthe $50 to $85 million range
for competitive grants and thatreally hasn't changed.
(06:58):
I look back on a yearly basisand it's usually within that
window, so it's migrated up alittle bit over a year as things
become more expensive andbudgets increase, but
essentially it's been veryconsistent over 30 years.
There have been two majorexceptions to that.
In the late 2000s there was theGreat Recession and that
(07:24):
prompted the American Recoveryand Reinvestment Act, or ARRA in
2009.
It actually increased brownfieldfunding for this annual program
by $100 million in just oneyear.
And then, more recently, as aresult of the COVID-19 pandemic,
(07:47):
the bipartisan infrastructurelaw the BIL, was established in
2021.
And that has been the singlelargest radical change in
brownfield funding over the last30 years.
Basically, over a five-yearperiod, the BIL increased annual
brownfield grants by 500%, soit's been a very fruitful time
(08:09):
for those in the brownfieldindustry and there's more
funding in circulation right nowthan there ever has been before
.
Speaker 2 (08:19):
No, wonderful, and I know that you mentioned
obviously that just we'retalking about the bipartisan
infrastructure law.
But how did, if we're goingback a couple administrations,
how did the Obama administrationreally shape the direction of
the Brownfield grants?
Speaker 3 (08:34):
You know so.
In the first Obama termobviously there was the ARA.
But you know, in looking backat the second Obama term,
funding levels held pretty,pretty firm.
You know they were consistentwith the annual appropriations.
There was no extra programs.
(08:56):
You know so annual fundingduring Obama term one was 60 to
70 million dollars and thefunding thresholds for
individual grants, you know,stayed consistent.
You know you could get up tofive hundred thousand dollars
for assessment grants andcleanup grants were a lowly two
hundred thousand dollars.
So not much changed actuallyduring.
Speaker 2 (09:19):
OK, so, moving on from the Obama administration,
there was a lot of obviouslyhesitancy during the Trump you
know first administration.
So what challenges did theprogram face, or what were
people within this community, inyour Brownfields community,
really concerned about?
Speaker 3 (09:37):
People were concerned about cuts you know, cuts to
programs where they had beenworking in for 20 years and what
that might do.
You know cuts to programs wherethey had been working in for 20
years and what that might do,you know to their existing
programs and plans.
And I had to reflect back on it, you know, recently, and look
at what actually happened, andthe truth is that during the
(10:03):
first Trump administration, theannual appropriations the base
of the program consistentlystayed with in the 60 to 70
million dollar range forassessment and cleanup grants,
and so I had forgotten this.
But Trump actually signed intolaw the Brownfields Utilization,
investment and LocalDevelopment, or Build Act in
(10:24):
2018.
And it actually included a lotof good things.
It expanded the 2002Brownfields Law that was signed
in by George Bush.
It increased funding levels, socleanup grants were actually
increased from a minimum of$200,000 to being funded at
(10:47):
$500,000, with the capacity tobe even increased further based
on available funding.
The BUILD Act also included taxincentives for new opportunity
zones opportunity zones, so fordevelopers in brownfield
(11:08):
impacted areas and distressedneighborhoods, there was new tax
incentives to build and putprivate investments into
brownfield impacted communities.
There was a couple more thingsthat expanded eligibility.
So it actually created a newrule where if you acquired a
property before a certain timein history, the rules relaxed a
little bit on its availabilityfor using brownfield grant
(11:29):
funding, which was great, inparticular for communities.
And then it created these newmulti-purpose grants which
didn't exist before andbasically in one grant you can
now apply for assessment moneyand you can apply for cleanup
money and redevelopment planningmoney.
So it's multi-purpose andhistorically before that
(11:49):
happened you had to individuallyapply for these types of phases
of brownfield grant developmentover several years.
So this allowed a community tofocus in on a site or a
neighborhood and get all thefunding they needed to walk the
properties through theassessment, cleanup and
redevelopment process.
So that was a really good thingand it was largely focused on
(12:10):
development.
But you know it filled in someblanks and some obstacles and
created new solutions forbrownfields, redevelopment and
communities.
Speaker 2 (12:24):
Now that's really interesting, especially because
when you're looking at a projectfrom the holistic level,
obviously you want to have asmuch funding as possible from
the start, so that you knowexactly where those funds are
going to be allocated, asopposed to having to apply, you
know, throughout the year forvarious grants.
So now the outgoingadministration.
(12:45):
Obviously we've talked aboutthe bipartisan infrastructure,
bil funding.
Speaker 3 (13:01):
How has that program from the very beginning, from
when it was first passed.
How has that really evolved andchanged over the past few years
?
So you know, during the Bidenadministration last four years,
you know there was a radicalchange.
The bipartisan infrastructurelaw actually included one
billion dollars of additionalgrant funding over five years,
and so the annual appropriationsstayed the same throughout the
(13:22):
last four years.
So it was generally in the 60to now $85 million range for the
annual grant competition.
But in 2022, we saw the firstBIL funding infused into the
Brownfield grant program andfunding levels went from 60
million to 147 million, so theyover doubled between 2021 and
(13:43):
2022.
In 2023, they reached $260million of annual grants and
most recently last May, $300million of grants were awarded,
and so that's 500% more fundingthan was available pre-BIL.
So right now, the great news isthere's more brownfield grant
(14:08):
funding in circulation right nowthan there ever has been in
history, and bipartisaninfrastructure law funding for
brownfields isn't quite done yet.
So that's where we want to lookat the state of the union and
kind of use that to project, youknow, what folks and
communities can do to continuedoing this great work over the
next four years and beyond.
Speaker 2 (14:32):
Yeah, great, and it's extremely helpful to have this
historical context andbackground to get us to where
we're going to go for the nextpart of the discussion, which
obviously is the State of theUnion.
So current strengths andchallenges facing the EPA
Brownfield program in 2024.
Speaker 3 (14:54):
Yeah, so looking forward, you know just slightly
to.
You know this year and nextyear.
You know the 2025 grantcompetition.
The grant applications were duelast month, on November 14th.
Funding awards are going to bemade generally in May, so May
2025.
(15:15):
And there's another great yearanticipated.
So they have advertised that$282 million of grants are going
to be awarded in May of grantsare going to be awarded in May
and you know the question.
The thing that's concerningfolks who just applied is is the
new administration going tocome in and try and walk back
(15:36):
some of these increases?
And so I've been using theinternet and keeping my ear to
the ground, talking to folks Iknow within EPA and otherwise,
and because this competitionalready accepted all the grant
applications by November 14th, Ithink I won't say we.
(15:58):
I also just focus on myself.
I think that there's a goodchance that this program will be
funded as advertised in May andthat'll be good news, for I
hear there was over 600applicants this year from across
the country.
So a lot of people areinterested in this and, as
somebody in the industry, Iprobably buy a hope that it
(16:19):
continues as advertised, becauseit's a really great opportunity
for my clients and otherclients.
Speaker 2 (16:26):
That's wonderful, and that was going to be one of my
questions too is how manyapplicants did you submit for
this fiscal year?
So, talking about the programsthat you've been involved with
and throughout the past coupleof years, but specifically
during Biden's presidency, arethere any really notable success
(16:51):
stories from the increasedfunding levels that you
mentioned earlier?
Speaker 3 (16:55):
They're still evolving, so you know it takes a
while from the time you applyto the time you get access for
funding generally a yearactually funding, generally a
year, actually.
So you apply in November, youget awarded in May, but it
really doesn't start untilOctober 1st, which is the
beginning of the federal fiscalyear, you know.
(17:18):
And so after that you have fourto five years, depending on the
type of grant, to actually putthe money in circulation and
effectively leverage it tosupport brownfield projects.
It's really cool, you know, thisprogram is that they learned a
long time ago that if you madesomebody write a grant
application and specificallystate which sites they were
going to work on and you knowwhat their plans were, that
they'd end up with a bunch ofdusty reports on a shelf and not
(17:40):
actual redevelopment.
So now they've adapted theprogram where you apply and
you're awarded funding based oncommunity need, community
support and the ability of theapplicant to figure out how to
use the money over a four tofive year period, and that
really allows our clients toreact to real world
opportunities that might not beknown today, tomorrow, next year
(18:01):
or the year after that.
They can continually evaluatewhat a good project is for their
community, what their currentneeds are, be it housing or
economic development, and thenadjust the funding, and so what
that means is funding awarded in2024, 2023, funding that's
(18:22):
going to be awarded in 2025,that has four to five years to
cycle through communities and dogood change.
So kind of regardless ofwhether you know, things are
scaled back slightly or therearen't there isn't a second
bipartisan infrastructure law onthe horizon.
There is a lot of good moneythat has been awarded and more
(18:43):
programs than ever areparticipating in this and have
access to better resources.
So, even though you know, withsome of these programs maybe not
making a return in the nearterm, you know there is still a
lot of good opportunity to usethe money that you have well in.
Success breeds success, havewell and success breeds success.
(19:10):
You know, if you do a good joband create success stories, then
that'll help the programcontinue to gain support all
over the country.
Speaker 2 (19:15):
Oh, no, definitely.
And you know you mentioned alittle bit ago talking about the
communities involved.
So what are the communitiessaying about the program's
accessibility and ability tomeet their needs as of today?
Speaker 3 (19:31):
My clients love this program.
They have incredible enthusiasm, you know, for it.
Most of our clients are repeatclients.
You know this isn't actually agrant program where it's like
one and done.
You know you can apply forassessment grants many, many,
(19:51):
many times.
You know all you have to do isuse 70% of your existing grant
to be able to apply for a secondone.
And then we have clients thatevery year are applying for
identifying sites that couldmake good candidates for cleanup
grants and then every year youcan actually apply for a
different site for cleanup inthat, and so there's been just a
(20:12):
ton of good momentum generatedover the last 30 years.
I've been excited to bring thefunding to underserved states
and communities that have neverhad access to it before.
That really excites me is goinghey, you know Nevada had no
awards this year.
Let's change that.
You know.
Same things with Utah, alaska.
We love looking at thestatistics, finding out
(20:34):
communities that would makegreat applicants and then
actually doing the outreach tosay, hey, I think you're the
best community in Alaska thathasn't applied in recent times.
You know why don't we changethat?
So hopefully that answers yourquestion.
Speaker 2 (20:53):
Yeah, no, it's very exciting.
And do you think you know, justin your experience, that
there's just not a lot ofinformation known about the
amount of grant money that isavailable for projects?
And it's when you go to talk tothese communities, as you said,
nevada or Alaska or Utah, wherethey've never heard of the
(21:14):
Brownfield Redevelopment Program.
Speaker 3 (21:17):
You know, I think actually that there's just so
much noise in the funding worldthat it's not like they haven't
heard of it, but they might haveheard of it.
And you know it actually reallyis challenging for communities
to get involved if they if theyhaven't been before.
And so you know, historically,regardless of the funding level,
(21:37):
believe it or not, the scoreyou need to write a successful
EPA brownfield grant has been 97percent.
So that means if you last yearapplied for one of these grants,
the applications were generallyscored out of one hundred and
sixty.
You needed one hundred andfifty six out of one hundred and
sixty to actually get funded.
And so if you can think about agrant application taking one
(22:01):
hundred hours to put together,like you can do your best as a
community member who is notentrenched in brownfields, you
know to learn about it, to getexcited about it, to put
together.
You know what, academically,would be like a really good
paper.
You know an A score of 145 outof 160.
And the sad truth is you knowyou'd be 10 points, 11 points
(22:23):
below where you need to be.
So it is a challenging programto navigate and there are a lot
of other grant programs outthere.
So I don't think it's so much.
As you know, they haven't heardof it.
It's just it's hard to getthings going and there's a lot
of other noise and it's hard tonavigate.
You know what your prioritiesshould be.
Speaker 2 (22:45):
That's why they come and talk to you, right,
Sometimes, yes, so I want tomove on.
You know past fiscal year, 2025.
Obviously, those grantsubmissions were due back in
November and you know, as youwere working with your clients
and talking to other people inthe industry, what are the
(23:06):
really emerging types ofprojects that are being proposed
.
Speaker 3 (23:11):
You know the types of projects that are being
proposed.
You know we've seen a lot ofebb and flow in recent times.
Through the pandemic and theshift to the online you know,
internet shopping environment,we've seen a lot of interesting
shifts away from office space,large commercial space,
(23:32):
migration to suburban areas.
So the good thing about thisprogram is that, as I mentioned
before, they award money todeserving communities based on
need and you can really adjustand adapt your program, you know
, with these shifts.
You know obviously any type ofchange in commercial or housing
(23:56):
you know creates brownfields,you know, or you know, provides
a need to redevelop brownfieldsto meet the new needs of that
neighborhood or that community,and so the adaptability of the
EPA brownfield grant program hasbeen paramount there is a lot
of concern, you know, with thislast year BIL funding.
(24:16):
So 2026 is the last of thefive-year cycle that you know
increased funding levels by 400%, you know, through bipartisan
infrastructure law and so the2026 grant competition, which is
next fall, is the last oneanticipated to have the IELTS
(24:37):
funding.
So you know, whereas I wascompletely optimistic, you know
that the grant program that justpassed, the 2025 one with
awards in May, you know we'llcontinue to have that BIL
funding.
There is a little bit morespeculation on whether you know
(24:58):
funding will be peeled back tonormal annual levels, you know,
for 2026.
So that's where I don't have acrystal ball, that's where I
want to stay optimistic.
It has been awarded through BIL, but we really have to continue
to monitor what's going onthere and adjust our strategies
accordingly to this program.
Speaker 2 (25:19):
So with not having a crystal ball, not knowing what's
going to come in 2027 to 2029,how should communities prepare?
And then, do you think that iffunding does return to the
pre-BIL levels, is that going toimpact the scope and
competitiveness of theBrownfields grants?
Speaker 3 (25:41):
Yeah, it will, you know, but it'll take a while.
You know things don't becomeradically more competitive
overnight.
And so, you know, with moregrants awarded in 2023 2024,
bigger grants awarded in uh 20242025 um in a four year, four to
five year implementation period, a lot of what um is now in
(26:04):
circulation will continue to bein circulation over the next
several years.
The good thing about theincrease over the last few years
is a lot more communities havegotten involved and a lot of
communities that historicallycouldn't, you know, be
competitive enough to securethis funding have, and the
challenging part will be they'rejust ramping up.
(26:24):
You know, you usually kind ofget your first grant to get your
feet wet and understand how toreally use the money well in
your community, and then it'sthe follow-on grants that you
know really help you build andleverage that momentum.
And I do think you know, whenfunding levels return to normal
and there's all these peoplethat are currently using the
(26:46):
funding and going to look formore, it will even get even more
competitive.
You know, I don't know if thatmeans you know, 158 out of 160
score, but you're getting prettyclose to requiring perfection
in your grant application toactually get funded and that
kind of leaves things in thehands of the reviewer, because
(27:07):
you just lose one point.
You know, and you know you'rebelow the threshold.
So it is.
It is a cruel game and I dothink, with funding levels
peeled back to normal and allthese other, all these new
communities that have thefunding and want more, that it
will probably see the mostcompetitive levels we've ever
seen and you know, maybe 2027,2028, 2029.
Speaker 2 (27:30):
One thing that you know you've mentioned.
We talked about the last threepresidents and the impact that
they've had on the EPA'sBrownfield funding.
Obviously, this funding wouldnot have occurred without
bipartisan support.
So do you anticipate any policyshifts or new collaborations in
order to sustain funding, youknow, beyond 2029?
Speaker 3 (27:54):
You know, historically this has been a
program that is well supportedin urban communities, rural
communities, blue states, redstates, purple states.
You know all communities havebrownfields.
My smallest community clienthas been a 30-person tribal
(28:14):
village in Alaska and my largestclient by population has been
the city of Los Angeles.
And the truth is there's beenbrownfields in all of those
communities and really a needfor this funding.
You know there was a focus onenvironmental justice and it was
a major program prioritythrough the Obama administration
(28:36):
and through the Bidenadministration.
In Trump term one it did shift alittle bit to business
opportunity zones but itactually filled in some elements
that were critical to providingsupport for developers you know
in that are going to investtheir own funding in brownfield
communities to, you know,focusing again on providing
(29:09):
development incentives for folksthat are willing to invest
their capital in brownfieldproperties and brownfield
impacted areas.
Maybe environmental justicedoes take a little.
(29:31):
Cases are one in the same, youknow.
So if you qualified underenvironmental justice, you'll
probably qualify under theopportunity zones and you know
you'll have access to resourceson both ends.
Speaker 2 (29:50):
Now, which is great advice and I know we are running
out of time for this discussionand I'm excited to see you know
over the next few years what'sgoing to happen with the program
.
But for those communities,those organizations who are
really starting to look at youknow, obviously we're awaiting
the awards for fiscal year 2025,but, in preparation for next
(30:12):
year's set of deadlines, whatcan organizations do now to help
prepare them?
Speaker 3 (30:20):
So you know there was unprecedented levels of funding
over the last four years andwhat we found was, you know,
everybody wanted a piece of it,but there were a lot of great,
you know community basedorganizations, tribal entities,
you know urban and ruralcommunities that would make
(30:40):
great candidates for certaingrant programs, but they just
didn't have the plans in placeand the partnerships in place to
quickly put together acompelling application, a
feasible application, and takeadvantage of the wave of funding
that was coming through.
So it doesn't take a lot ofmoney actually to evaluate what
(31:04):
your environmental justice andbrownfield needs are, to develop
stakeholder partnerships, youknow, which are critical to
actually doing great things incommunities.
You can't just do it as amunicipality, you can't just do
it as a nonprofit, you can'tjust do it as a private
developer.
You kind of need acollaborative partnership and
(31:24):
there are grants for that.
But it really doesn't require alot of money to get folks
together to talk about how theycan contribute to addressing the
issues and develop plans.
You know feasible plans toaddress some of the brownfield
and environmental justice issuesand so my recommendation is
(31:45):
there's tools out there toevaluate what your needs are.
There's partners within yourcommunity and building
relationships is going to behuge.
And then you know make theinvestment to create plans to
address these issues and reallyprepare yourself, for you know
what opportunities are going tocome up in the future and you
(32:08):
know really position yourself todo it.
And in the meantime there aresmaller grants that you can
apply for.
You know that can help advancethe cause and that's what we're
doing is we're looking at, youknow, foundations and other
programs, once again, ones thathave annual appropriations and
consistent levels of funding andcontinuing to advance the
(32:30):
needle until we see another.
You know community change grantprogram or initiative come
through the federal governmentthat can really help move the
needle on changing thesecommunities move the needle on
changing these communitiesWonderful, and I think that's a
(32:50):
perfect way to wrap up today'sconversation.
Speaker 2 (32:51):
I want to thank you, chris, for all of the insight
that you provided on Brownfieldsgrants, and thank you to the
team at Montrose for sponsoringtoday's event.
If you have questions for Chrisor a member of his team, please
feel free to submit them usingthe Q&A widget or again at the
survey that's going to pop up onyour screen.
Don't worry, chris and teamwill get every single question
(33:12):
and comment that comes in and Iknow he will be in touch with
you as soon as he can.
So, chris, as always, it's beena pleasure to spend some time
with you today and we appreciateyour advice.
Speaker 3 (33:23):
Thank you, thanks everyone.
Welcome to a new and special feature of
Sustainability Unveiled IndustryVoices a conversation with.
In this episode, jessica Huntsits down with Chris Gaddak from
Montrose Environmental Group.
Sit back and enjoy theirconversation about Brownfields
funding.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
Go from there.
Okay, good morning, afternoon,evening, from wherever you are
joining us today.
My name is Jessica Hunt and itis a pleasure to welcome you to
today's event, today'sdiscussion.
Before we begin, if you do havequestions for Chris or another
member of his team, please feelfree to submit those using the
Q&A widget at the bottom of yourscreen or via the survey that
(00:50):
will pop up at the end oftoday's discussion.
We will make sure that all ofthose questions get over to the
team at Montrose as soon aspossible.
Joining me today is Chris Jadak,the Brownfields and Community
Revitalization Practice Leaderat Montrose Environmental Group,
(01:11):
and, as always, it is apleasure to work with any member
of the team from Montrose.
Chris has over 22 years inenvironmental consulting and
Brownfield redevelopment.
He has been instrumental inassisting municipal, tribal and
community-based organizationsacross more than 20 states.
His expertise lies in securingand leveraging grants, loans and
(01:32):
other incentives to supportenvironmental site assessments,
cleanups, restorations andcapital improvement projects and
to date, his team, with a 100%success rate, has secured over
$37 million in client fundingand we are so unbelievably
pleased to have him here today.
(01:53):
And the focus in case you havejust registered and you don't
know too much about today'sevent is on the evolution of the
EPA's Brownfield andEnvironmental Justice Programs
over the past twoadministrations.
So we're going to analyze theimpacts of significant
legislation such as theBipartisan Infrastructure Law
and the Inflation Reduction Act,which have infused substantial
(02:15):
funding into these programs, andwe're also going to explore
potential future directions,because I know a lot of
individuals do have questionsabout the state of Brownfield's
fundings, considering theoutcomes of our recent federal
elections in the United States.
So I've talked enough alreadyat this point.
(02:36):
So at this point I'm going tohave Chris tell us a little bit
about yourself that I haven'tmentioned already and before we
really jump into the meat of thediscussion.
Speaker 3 (02:47):
Thank you, jessica, that was a great introduction.
As advertised, I've spent thelast 20 years of my career as a
consulting, helping communitiesbuild hopefully successful
restoration and revitalizationprograms, and over the last 18
months that has brought me tobeing the practice leader at
(03:09):
Montrose.
I've been lucky enough to,through this work, support
clients in a diversity of urbanand rural environments,
including projects in over 40states and all 10 of EPA's
regions.
The focus of the work ishelping communities develop
plans to restore brownfields andrevitalize neighborhoods, and
(03:33):
that involves exploring avariety of state and federal
grant programs and localincentives to support the
restoration and revitalizationprocess.
You know there has been a lotof changes recently over the
past two administrations withlevel of funding available
through two key programs thathelp clients navigate, which are
(03:56):
the EPA Brownfield Grants andthe EPA Environmental Justice
Program environmental justiceprogram.
And so, with the recent federalelections and a second Trump
term on the horizon, many folksin our industry are wondering
(04:17):
what the next four years arelike.
So in this State of the Uniondiscussion, I thought we'd
examine what's been going on,what the State of the Union is,
and kind of get the crystal ballout and see which direction we
think things are going to go inthe next four years and beyond,
and I have to put a disclaimerin here I'm not a lobbyist,
(04:39):
lawyer, politician or prophet,but I do have a degree in civil
environmental engineering and 24years of experience, so I've
got opinions and perspectives.
I also have Google and chat CPTto help me through everything,
so I'm happy to be here andexcited to get into it.
Speaker 2 (04:56):
Yeah, no, we're extremely excited to have you on
with us today, and I know thatthere are so many different
aspects of brownfields that wecould cover.
And this is a short discussionwhich hopefully will continue
later, into 2025, too.
So let's jump in, let's getstarted, and you mentioned the
EPA brownfield grant, so can yougive us just a brief overview
(05:20):
of what that looks like forthose who might not know some of
the specifics?
Speaker 3 (05:25):
view of what that looks like for those who might
not know.
You know some of the specifics,certainly, and I will say we
are putting together a blog thatwe're going to issue in the
next 10 days that's going tohave some graphs and statistics
in that, so you might not haveto write too feverishly if
you're trying to take notes andtrying to absorb a lot of
information.
Speaker 2 (05:39):
And before you jump in, I will say for anyone who's
attending don't take notes, justlisten, because you'll be able
to go back and rewatch ourconversation.
Speaker 3 (05:54):
So really you know, enjoy the discussion and save
your notes for when you rewatchit Right on EPA Brownfield Grant
.
So let's give a brief overviewhere.
So the EPA Brownfield Grantprogram has actually been going
on since the mid-1990s.
It was formally signed into lawin 2002 under the George Bush
administration.
Generally there's this annualcompetition where grant
(06:15):
applications are due in the falland awards are announced in the
spring.
The grants generally have likea four to five year
implementation period onceyou're awarded, to use the funds
in the community to inventory,assess, get community
stakeholder involvement and doreuse plans around brownfield
(06:37):
restoration and revitalization.
The funding levels haveactually historically been very
consistent over the past 30years.
Generally, annualappropriations for EPA
brownfield grants have ranged inthe $50 to $85 million range
for competitive grants and thatreally hasn't changed.
(06:58):
I look back on a yearly basisand it's usually within that
window, so it's migrated up alittle bit over a year as things
become more expensive andbudgets increase, but
essentially it's been veryconsistent over 30 years.
There have been two majorexceptions to that.
In the late 2000s there was theGreat Recession and that
(07:24):
prompted the American Recoveryand Reinvestment Act, or ARRA in
2009.
It actually increased brownfieldfunding for this annual program
by $100 million in just oneyear.
And then, more recently, as aresult of the COVID-19 pandemic,
(07:47):
the bipartisan infrastructurelaw the BIL, was established in
2021.
And that has been the singlelargest radical change in
brownfield funding over the last30 years.
Basically, over a five-yearperiod, the BIL increased annual
brownfield grants by 500%, soit's been a very fruitful time
(08:09):
for those in the brownfieldindustry and there's more
funding in circulation right nowthan there ever has been before
.
Speaker 2 (08:19):
No, wonderful, and I know that you mentioned
obviously that just we'retalking about the bipartisan
infrastructure law.
But how did, if we're goingback a couple administrations,
how did the Obama administrationreally shape the direction of
the Brownfield grants?
Speaker 3 (08:34):
You know so.
In the first Obama termobviously there was the ARA.
But you know, in looking backat the second Obama term,
funding levels held pretty,pretty firm.
You know they were consistentwith the annual appropriations.
There was no extra programs.
(08:56):
You know so annual fundingduring Obama term one was 60 to
70 million dollars and thefunding thresholds for
individual grants, you know,stayed consistent.
You know you could get up tofive hundred thousand dollars
for assessment grants andcleanup grants were a lowly two
hundred thousand dollars.
So not much changed actuallyduring.
Speaker 2 (09:19):
OK, so, moving on from the Obama administration,
there was a lot of obviouslyhesitancy during the Trump you
know first administration.
So what challenges did theprogram face, or what were
people within this community, inyour Brownfields community,
really concerned about?
Speaker 3 (09:37):
People were concerned about cuts you know, cuts to
programs where they had beenworking in for 20 years and what
that might do.
You know cuts to programs wherethey had been working in for 20
years and what that might do,you know to their existing
programs and plans.
And I had to reflect back on it, you know, recently, and look
at what actually happened, andthe truth is that during the
(10:03):
first Trump administration, theannual appropriations the base
of the program consistentlystayed with in the 60 to 70
million dollar range forassessment and cleanup grants,
and so I had forgotten this.
But Trump actually signed intolaw the Brownfields Utilization,
investment and LocalDevelopment, or Build Act in
(10:24):
2018.
And it actually included a lotof good things.
It expanded the 2002Brownfields Law that was signed
in by George Bush.
It increased funding levels, socleanup grants were actually
increased from a minimum of$200,000 to being funded at
(10:47):
$500,000, with the capacity tobe even increased further based
on available funding.
The BUILD Act also included taxincentives for new opportunity
zones opportunity zones, so fordevelopers in brownfield
(11:08):
impacted areas and distressedneighborhoods, there was new tax
incentives to build and putprivate investments into
brownfield impacted communities.
There was a couple more thingsthat expanded eligibility.
So it actually created a newrule where if you acquired a
property before a certain timein history, the rules relaxed a
little bit on its availabilityfor using brownfield grant
(11:29):
funding, which was great, inparticular for communities.
And then it created these newmulti-purpose grants which
didn't exist before andbasically in one grant you can
now apply for assessment moneyand you can apply for cleanup
money and redevelopment planningmoney.
So it's multi-purpose andhistorically before that
(11:49):
happened you had to individuallyapply for these types of phases
of brownfield grant developmentover several years.
So this allowed a community tofocus in on a site or a
neighborhood and get all thefunding they needed to walk the
properties through theassessment, cleanup and
redevelopment process.
So that was a really good thingand it was largely focused on
(12:10):
development.
But you know it filled in someblanks and some obstacles and
created new solutions forbrownfields, redevelopment and
communities.
Speaker 2 (12:24):
Now that's really interesting, especially because
when you're looking at a projectfrom the holistic level,
obviously you want to have asmuch funding as possible from
the start, so that you knowexactly where those funds are
going to be allocated, asopposed to having to apply, you
know, throughout the year forvarious grants.
So now the outgoingadministration.
(12:45):
Obviously we've talked aboutthe bipartisan infrastructure,
bil funding.
Speaker 3 (13:01):
How has that program from the very beginning, from
when it was first passed.
How has that really evolved andchanged over the past few years
?
So you know, during the Bidenadministration last four years,
you know there was a radicalchange.
The bipartisan infrastructurelaw actually included one
billion dollars of additionalgrant funding over five years,
and so the annual appropriationsstayed the same throughout the
(13:22):
last four years.
So it was generally in the 60to now $85 million range for the
annual grant competition.
But in 2022, we saw the firstBIL funding infused into the
Brownfield grant program andfunding levels went from 60
million to 147 million, so theyover doubled between 2021 and
(13:43):
2022.
In 2023, they reached $260million of annual grants and
most recently last May, $300million of grants were awarded,
and so that's 500% more fundingthan was available pre-BIL.
So right now, the great news isthere's more brownfield grant
(14:08):
funding in circulation right nowthan there ever has been in
history, and bipartisaninfrastructure law funding for
brownfields isn't quite done yet.
So that's where we want to lookat the state of the union and
kind of use that to project, youknow, what folks and
communities can do to continuedoing this great work over the
next four years and beyond.
Speaker 2 (14:32):
Yeah, great, and it's extremely helpful to have this
historical context andbackground to get us to where
we're going to go for the nextpart of the discussion, which
obviously is the State of theUnion.
So current strengths andchallenges facing the EPA
Brownfield program in 2024.
Speaker 3 (14:54):
Yeah, so looking forward, you know just slightly
to.
You know this year and nextyear.
You know the 2025 grantcompetition.
The grant applications were duelast month, on November 14th.
Funding awards are going to bemade generally in May, so May
2025.
(15:15):
And there's another great yearanticipated.
So they have advertised that$282 million of grants are going
to be awarded in May of grantsare going to be awarded in May
and you know the question.
The thing that's concerningfolks who just applied is is the
new administration going tocome in and try and walk back
(15:36):
some of these increases?
And so I've been using theinternet and keeping my ear to
the ground, talking to folks Iknow within EPA and otherwise,
and because this competitionalready accepted all the grant
applications by November 14th, Ithink I won't say we.
(15:58):
I also just focus on myself.
I think that there's a goodchance that this program will be
funded as advertised in May andthat'll be good news, for I
hear there was over 600applicants this year from across
the country.
So a lot of people areinterested in this and, as
somebody in the industry, Iprobably buy a hope that it
(16:19):
continues as advertised, becauseit's a really great opportunity
for my clients and otherclients.
Speaker 2 (16:26):
That's wonderful, and that was going to be one of my
questions too is how manyapplicants did you submit for
this fiscal year?
So, talking about the programsthat you've been involved with
and throughout the past coupleof years, but specifically
during Biden's presidency, arethere any really notable success
(16:51):
stories from the increasedfunding levels that you
mentioned earlier?
Speaker 3 (16:55):
They're still evolving, so you know it takes a
while from the time you applyto the time you get access for
funding generally a yearactually funding, generally a
year, actually.
So you apply in November, youget awarded in May, but it
really doesn't start untilOctober 1st, which is the
beginning of the federal fiscalyear, you know.
(17:18):
And so after that you have fourto five years, depending on the
type of grant, to actually putthe money in circulation and
effectively leverage it tosupport brownfield projects.
It's really cool, you know, thisprogram is that they learned a
long time ago that if you madesomebody write a grant
application and specificallystate which sites they were
going to work on and you knowwhat their plans were, that
they'd end up with a bunch ofdusty reports on a shelf and not
(17:40):
actual redevelopment.
So now they've adapted theprogram where you apply and
you're awarded funding based oncommunity need, community
support and the ability of theapplicant to figure out how to
use the money over a four tofive year period, and that
really allows our clients toreact to real world
opportunities that might not beknown today, tomorrow, next year
(18:01):
or the year after that.
They can continually evaluatewhat a good project is for their
community, what their currentneeds are, be it housing or
economic development, and thenadjust the funding, and so what
that means is funding awarded in2024, 2023, funding that's
(18:22):
going to be awarded in 2025,that has four to five years to
cycle through communities and dogood change.
So kind of regardless ofwhether you know, things are
scaled back slightly or therearen't there isn't a second
bipartisan infrastructure law onthe horizon.
There is a lot of good moneythat has been awarded and more
(18:43):
programs than ever areparticipating in this and have
access to better resources.
So, even though you know, withsome of these programs maybe not
making a return in the nearterm, you know there is still a
lot of good opportunity to usethe money that you have well in.
Success breeds success, havewell and success breeds success.
(19:10):
You know, if you do a good joband create success stories, then
that'll help the programcontinue to gain support all
over the country.
Speaker 2 (19:15):
Oh, no, definitely.
And you know you mentioned alittle bit ago talking about the
communities involved.
So what are the communitiessaying about the program's
accessibility and ability tomeet their needs as of today?
Speaker 3 (19:31):
My clients love this program.
They have incredible enthusiasm, you know, for it.
Most of our clients are repeatclients.
You know this isn't actually agrant program where it's like
one and done.
You know you can apply forassessment grants many, many,
(19:51):
many times.
You know all you have to do isuse 70% of your existing grant
to be able to apply for a secondone.
And then we have clients thatevery year are applying for
identifying sites that couldmake good candidates for cleanup
grants and then every year youcan actually apply for a
different site for cleanup inthat, and so there's been just a
(20:12):
ton of good momentum generatedover the last 30 years.
I've been excited to bring thefunding to underserved states
and communities that have neverhad access to it before.
That really excites me is goinghey, you know Nevada had no
awards this year.
Let's change that.
You know.
Same things with Utah, alaska.
We love looking at thestatistics, finding out
(20:34):
communities that would makegreat applicants and then
actually doing the outreach tosay, hey, I think you're the
best community in Alaska thathasn't applied in recent times.
You know why don't we changethat?
So hopefully that answers yourquestion.
Speaker 2 (20:53):
Yeah, no, it's very exciting.
And do you think you know, justin your experience, that
there's just not a lot ofinformation known about the
amount of grant money that isavailable for projects?
And it's when you go to talk tothese communities, as you said,
nevada or Alaska or Utah, wherethey've never heard of the
(21:14):
Brownfield Redevelopment Program.
Speaker 3 (21:17):
You know, I think actually that there's just so
much noise in the funding worldthat it's not like they haven't
heard of it, but they might haveheard of it.
And you know it actually reallyis challenging for communities
to get involved if they if theyhaven't been before.
And so you know, historically,regardless of the funding level,
(21:37):
believe it or not, the scoreyou need to write a successful
EPA brownfield grant has been 97percent.
So that means if you last yearapplied for one of these grants,
the applications were generallyscored out of one hundred and
sixty.
You needed one hundred andfifty six out of one hundred and
sixty to actually get funded.
And so if you can think about agrant application taking one
(22:01):
hundred hours to put together,like you can do your best as a
community member who is notentrenched in brownfields, you
know to learn about it, to getexcited about it, to put
together.
You know what, academically,would be like a really good
paper.
You know an A score of 145 outof 160.
And the sad truth is you knowyou'd be 10 points, 11 points
(22:23):
below where you need to be.
So it is a challenging programto navigate and there are a lot
of other grant programs outthere.
So I don't think it's so much.
As you know, they haven't heardof it.
It's just it's hard to getthings going and there's a lot
of other noise and it's hard tonavigate.
You know what your prioritiesshould be.
Speaker 2 (22:45):
That's why they come and talk to you, right,
Sometimes, yes, so I want tomove on.
You know past fiscal year, 2025.
Obviously, those grantsubmissions were due back in
November and you know, as youwere working with your clients
and talking to other people inthe industry, what are the
(23:06):
really emerging types ofprojects that are being proposed
.
Speaker 3 (23:11):
You know the types of projects that are being
proposed.
You know we've seen a lot ofebb and flow in recent times.
Through the pandemic and theshift to the online you know,
internet shopping environment,we've seen a lot of interesting
shifts away from office space,large commercial space,
(23:32):
migration to suburban areas.
So the good thing about thisprogram is that, as I mentioned
before, they award money todeserving communities based on
need and you can really adjustand adapt your program, you know
, with these shifts.
You know obviously any type ofchange in commercial or housing
(23:56):
you know creates brownfields,you know, or you know, provides
a need to redevelop brownfieldsto meet the new needs of that
neighborhood or that community,and so the adaptability of the
EPA brownfield grant program hasbeen paramount there is a lot
of concern, you know, with thislast year BIL funding.
(24:16):
So 2026 is the last of thefive-year cycle that you know
increased funding levels by 400%, you know, through bipartisan
infrastructure law and so the2026 grant competition, which is
next fall, is the last oneanticipated to have the IELTS
(24:37):
funding.
So you know, whereas I wascompletely optimistic, you know
that the grant program that justpassed, the 2025 one with
awards in May, you know we'llcontinue to have that BIL
funding.
There is a little bit morespeculation on whether you know
(24:58):
funding will be peeled back tonormal annual levels, you know,
for 2026.
So that's where I don't have acrystal ball, that's where I
want to stay optimistic.
It has been awarded through BIL, but we really have to continue
to monitor what's going onthere and adjust our strategies
accordingly to this program.
Speaker 2 (25:19):
So with not having a crystal ball, not knowing what's
going to come in 2027 to 2029,how should communities prepare?
And then, do you think that iffunding does return to the
pre-BIL levels, is that going toimpact the scope and
competitiveness of theBrownfields grants?
Speaker 3 (25:41):
Yeah, it will, you know, but it'll take a while.
You know things don't becomeradically more competitive
overnight.
And so, you know, with moregrants awarded in 2023 2024,
bigger grants awarded in uh 20242025 um in a four year, four to
five year implementation period, a lot of what um is now in
(26:04):
circulation will continue to bein circulation over the next
several years.
The good thing about theincrease over the last few years
is a lot more communities havegotten involved and a lot of
communities that historicallycouldn't, you know, be
competitive enough to securethis funding have, and the
challenging part will be they'rejust ramping up.
(26:24):
You know, you usually kind ofget your first grant to get your
feet wet and understand how toreally use the money well in
your community, and then it'sthe follow-on grants that you
know really help you build andleverage that momentum.
And I do think you know, whenfunding levels return to normal
and there's all these peoplethat are currently using the
(26:46):
funding and going to look formore, it will even get even more
competitive.
You know, I don't know if thatmeans you know, 158 out of 160
score, but you're getting prettyclose to requiring perfection
in your grant application toactually get funded and that
kind of leaves things in thehands of the reviewer, because
(27:07):
you just lose one point.
You know, and you know you'rebelow the threshold.
So it is.
It is a cruel game and I dothink, with funding levels
peeled back to normal and allthese other, all these new
communities that have thefunding and want more, that it
will probably see the mostcompetitive levels we've ever
seen and you know, maybe 2027,2028, 2029.
Speaker 2 (27:30):
One thing that you know you've mentioned.
We talked about the last threepresidents and the impact that
they've had on the EPA'sBrownfield funding.
Obviously, this funding wouldnot have occurred without
bipartisan support.
So do you anticipate any policyshifts or new collaborations in
order to sustain funding, youknow, beyond 2029?
Speaker 3 (27:54):
You know, historically this has been a
program that is well supportedin urban communities, rural
communities, blue states, redstates, purple states.
You know all communities havebrownfields.
My smallest community clienthas been a 30-person tribal
(28:14):
village in Alaska and my largestclient by population has been
the city of Los Angeles.
And the truth is there's beenbrownfields in all of those
communities and really a needfor this funding.
You know there was a focus onenvironmental justice and it was
a major program prioritythrough the Obama administration
(28:36):
and through the Bidenadministration.
In Trump term one it did shift alittle bit to business
opportunity zones but itactually filled in some elements
that were critical to providingsupport for developers you know
in that are going to investtheir own funding in brownfield
communities to, you know,focusing again on providing
(29:09):
development incentives for folksthat are willing to invest
their capital in brownfieldproperties and brownfield
impacted areas.
Maybe environmental justicedoes take a little.
(29:31):
Cases are one in the same, youknow.
So if you qualified underenvironmental justice, you'll
probably qualify under theopportunity zones and you know
you'll have access to resourceson both ends.
Speaker 2 (29:50):
Now, which is great advice and I know we are running
out of time for this discussionand I'm excited to see you know
over the next few years what'sgoing to happen with the program
.
But for those communities,those organizations who are
really starting to look at youknow, obviously we're awaiting
the awards for fiscal year 2025,but, in preparation for next
(30:12):
year's set of deadlines, whatcan organizations do now to help
prepare them?
Speaker 3 (30:20):
So you know there was unprecedented levels of funding
over the last four years andwhat we found was, you know,
everybody wanted a piece of it,but there were a lot of great,
you know community basedorganizations, tribal entities,
you know urban and ruralcommunities that would make
(30:40):
great candidates for certaingrant programs, but they just
didn't have the plans in placeand the partnerships in place to
quickly put together acompelling application, a
feasible application, and takeadvantage of the wave of funding
that was coming through.
So it doesn't take a lot ofmoney actually to evaluate what
(31:04):
your environmental justice andbrownfield needs are, to develop
stakeholder partnerships, youknow, which are critical to
actually doing great things incommunities.
You can't just do it as amunicipality, you can't just do
it as a nonprofit, you can'tjust do it as a private
developer.
You kind of need acollaborative partnership and
(31:24):
there are grants for that.
But it really doesn't require alot of money to get folks
together to talk about how theycan contribute to addressing the
issues and develop plans.
You know feasible plans toaddress some of the brownfield
and environmental justice issuesand so my recommendation is
(31:45):
there's tools out there toevaluate what your needs are.
There's partners within yourcommunity and building
relationships is going to behuge.
And then you know make theinvestment to create plans to
address these issues and reallyprepare yourself, for you know
what opportunities are going tocome up in the future and you
(32:08):
know really position yourself todo it.
And in the meantime there aresmaller grants that you can
apply for.
You know that can help advancethe cause and that's what we're
doing is we're looking at, youknow, foundations and other
programs, once again, ones thathave annual appropriations and
consistent levels of funding andcontinuing to advance the
(32:30):
needle until we see another.
You know community change grantprogram or initiative come
through the federal governmentthat can really help move the
needle on changing thesecommunities move the needle on
changing these communitiesWonderful, and I think that's a
(32:50):
perfect way to wrap up today'sconversation.
Speaker 2 (32:51):
I want to thank you, chris, for all of the insight
that you provided on Brownfieldsgrants, and thank you to the
team at Montrose for sponsoringtoday's event.
If you have questions for Chrisor a member of his team, please
feel free to submit them usingthe Q&A widget or again at the
survey that's going to pop up onyour screen.
Don't worry, chris and teamwill get every single question
(33:12):
and comment that comes in and Iknow he will be in touch with
you as soon as he can.
So, chris, as always, it's beena pleasure to spend some time
with you today and we appreciateyour advice.
Speaker 3 (33:23):
Thank you, thanks everyone.
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