Revitalizing Underused Oklahoma City Sites with EPA Grant

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recently awarded a 500 thousand dollar grant to the City of Oklahoma for the Brownfields Assessment.  

Saturday, June 28th 2025, 10:23 pm

By: Stephanie Maniche


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The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recently awarded a $500,000 grant to the City of Oklahoma for the Brownfields Assessment.  

Brownsfields are properties that may have environmental contaminants and are underused making it difficult to redevelop.  

The city applied for these assessment funds to help developers who are looking to invest in different communities.  

The Brownsfield assessments have been done in many areas in Oklahoma City like Core to Shore, south of eighth, and the northeast twenty third corridor.  

Oklahoma City Senior Brownsfields Planner, Amanda Alewine, said Oklahoma City was built on a historic oil field. 

She added often times we are dealing with the remnants of that activity. 

“When people are developing these different sites into something that would be beneficial for the community now, then we look and say, okay, well, was there an old gas station? Was there an old dry cleaners? What was this? What was the history of this site,” said Alewine.  

She said the assessments help developers when they are choosing a site to learn the history of that location. 

Alewine added phase one environmental site assessments look at what has been there throughout the years.

“If there are what we call recognized environmental conditions, we can do a phase two.

The phase two is where we actually go sample. We bring drilling rigs out; we test the water, test the soil, see what is actually there,” added Alewine.  

She said if developers run into an issue, then they look at what their redevelopment is and other options like removing the contamination.  

This also helps decide what should go in different locations.  

Alewine said many times buildings will remain empty and vacant because people are concerned. She said they also have reservations about the cost being too high.  

These funds will become available October 1, and the city will have four years to use the 500 thousand dollars.

Stephanie Maniche

Multimedia journalist Stephanie Maniche joined News 9 in January 2025. She has a passion for telling compelling stories that inform, engage and inspire communities. Stephanie previously worked in Alpena, MI and Wichita, KS.

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