The FY06 Guidelines for the Brownfields Assessment, Revolving Loan Fund, and Cleanup Grants have been posted to the brownfields website at www.epa.gov/brownfields. The proposal deadline is December 14, 2005.

These grants may be used to address sites contaminated by petroleum and hazardous substances, pollutants, or contaminants (including hazardous substances co-mingled with petroleum).

Opportunities for funding are as follows (See Catalogue of Federal Domestic Assistance Number: 66.818):

Brownfields assessment grants: (each funded up to $200,000 over three years) provide funding to inventory, characterize, assess, and conduct planning and community involvement related to brownfield sites;

Brownfields revolving loan fund grants (RLF): (each funded up to $1,000,000 over five years) provide funding to capitalize a revolving loan fund and to provide subgrants to carry out cleanup activities at brownfield sites that are owned by the subgrant recipient;

Brownfields cleanup grants: (each funded up to $200,000 over three years) provide funding for a grant recipient to carry out cleanup activities at brownfield sites that are owned by the grant recipient.

There are several important changes to the FY06 guidelines. These include:

~ Extension of the performance period for assessment and cleanup grants from two to three years; ~ Required date of site ownership for cleanup grants moved from September 30, 2006 to June 30, 2006; ~ Phase II assessment must be underway or complete at time of cleanup grant application; and ~ Only community-wide RLF applications will be considered, no site-specific RLF proposals this year.