EPA to formally award $600,000 grant

Staff report

WARREN

Representatives of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency will formally award a $600,000 Brownfield Assessment Coalition Grant to the Western Reserve Port Authority on Friday.

There will be a ceremony at 10 a.m. at the site of the former Delphi Plant 8, located at the intersection of Griswold and Paige streets in Warren.

“This Brownfield Assessment Coalition Grant, one of only four awarded in Ohio by the EPA, clearly demonstrates that cooperation and collaboration among governmental agencies and entities can have a powerful, positive impact on our region,” according to a statement by the port authority. “By providing the funds needed to identify and market sites for industrial and commercial development or preservation as greenspace, the grant will enable the [port authority] and our coalition partners, the Trumbull County Planning Commission, the city of Warren, Howland Township and the Mahoning River Corridor Initiative, to substantially improve the quality of life in our community in the years ahead.”

The grant will be used to conduct a brownfield inventory of about 35 sites encompassing 200 acres, perform about 30 phase-one and 20 phase-two environmental-site assessments, plan cleanup for about seven sites and organize community-engagement activities.

The sites involved include the former Delphi complex in north Warren, areas along the Mahoning River Corridor and the Golden Triangle along Bronze, Dietz and Griswold streets in Warren.

All have been severely impacted by plant closings.