State Funding Brownfield Cleanup for New Housing in Bohemian Hill

The State Environmental Improvement and Energy Resources Authority (EIERA) has selected the Red Brick Community Land Trust to receive $15,000 to address petroleum related contamination of a Soulard brownfields site.

The EIERA will make the award to the RBCLT in a public ceremony at the property location, 1805 S. Tucker Street, St. Louis on Thursday, July 19, 2007 at 9:30 a.m. (Rain Site: 2020 S. 12th St.)

The Red Brick Community Land Trust will use the money to remove petroleum-related contamination enabling a residential development to proceed on the property in the Bohemian Hill neighborhood, part of the Soulard area. Red Brick Community Land Trust was established in 2001 as a non-profit organization that secures permanently affordable housing for low-income St. Louis metropolitan residents.

“Affordability in Soulard remains problematic, thus the Bohemian Hill property is an attractive location for this proposed project,” said Jerome Govero, a member of the EIERA Board.

A brownfield site is real property, the expansion, redevelopment, or reuse of which may be complicated by the presence or potential presence of a hazardous substance, pollutant, or contaminant.

The EIERA received a $1 million grant from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to capitalize the Missouri Brownfields Revolving Loan Fund that will provide loans and subgrants for cleanup of sites contaminated with petroleum and hazardous substances. The EIERA works with the Missouri Department of Natural Resources Brownfields Voluntary Cleanup Program to support brownfields cleanup activities so
that redevelopment and reuse of properties can proceed.