250 R.I. Code R. 250-RICR-140-30-2.10

Current through December 26, 2024

Section 250-RICR-140-30-2.10 - Project Categories and Eligible Costs

A. Proposed projects must be on a Brownfields site known to the Department. If a proposal is submitted on a property not known to the Department, the application must be accompanied by a notification of Release pursuant to the Remediation Regulations.

B. Projects should have real economic development impact, create jobs, leverage private funds, and return under-utilized properties to beneficial re-use. Further, those projects that benefit human health and the environment while achieving the goals above will be scored favorably by the Review Committee.

2.10.1Project Categories:

A. The following categories of grants will be considered:

1. Pre-Development Planning Grants - small/mini grant requests for initial efforts to build off past investigations and assessments to determine the options and costs of remediation and/or the feasibility of redevelopment.

2. Redevelopment Grants - for projects with a completed site investigation and approved Remedial Action Work Plan or Order of Approval, these grants support the development of detailed marketing and redevelopment plans focused on bringing the site back to productive reuse.

3. Site Preparation Grants - Site preparation grant applications may include support for site investigation and assessment of environmental contamination, remediation activities, other environmental investigations, design, or site work required to support reuse/redevelopment of the Brownfields site, research and compilation of key information on a Brownfields site to support redevelopment, and/or redevelopment planning/marketing support for a Brownfields site.

4. Small Business Assistance Grants - for small businesses which are existing companies located on Brownfields sites without the resources to address contamination. The goal of small business assistance grants is to provide the capital to investigate and clean up the site in a manner protective of public health and the environment while simultaneously restoring the value of the underlying property asset and supporting the long-term financial viability of the existing small business.

a. Specifically, the following types of costs are eligible to receive grant monies from the Fund pursuant to these regulations:

(1) Soil, groundwater, soil gas, indoor air, and infrastructure/building materials investigation.

(2) Site Assessment.

(3) Remediation.

(4) Hazardous material abatement and/or waste disposal.

(5) Long term groundwater, indoor air, soil gas and other environmental monitoring.

(6) Institutional controls.

(7) Environmental consulting costs.

(8) Other environmental investigations, compilation of information, marketing materials, design, or site work required to support reuse/redevelopment of the Brownfields site.

b. Examples of types of costs that are ineligible to receive grant monies from the Fund from these regulations include:

(1) Pre-award costs, unless incurred within 90 days of application approval and have been pre-approved by the Department.

(2) Administrative costs including clerical support, monthly utility expenses, the purchase of office equipment, personnel costs associated with fund raising for the nongovernmental entity, etc.

(3) Costs associated with the performance of a Supplemental Environmental Project ("SEP"). A SEP shall be consistent with the Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management Policy on Supplemental Environmental Projects. Specifically, a SEP is a project, beyond that required by law, that produces environmental or public health and safety benefits that a Respondent agrees to undertake in settlement of an enforcement action. An acceptable SEP is also a project for which a credit may be granted by the DEM to offset a portion of the assessed gravity penalty in the settlement of an enforcement action.

(4) State or Federal lobbying costs, penalties or fines.

(5) Land acquisition projects that do not have tangible public health or environmental benefits and physical construction or redevelopment.

(6) Response costs for emergency response actions caused or exacerbated solely by the applicant or their agents or assigns.

(7) Proposed projects associated with unresolved litigation (administrative or judicial) with the Department or conditions or activities that have violated or are violating statutes or regulations administered by the Department shall be ineligible to receive Fund monies without the express written consent of the Director and the resolution of said litigation or violation(s).

250 R.I. Code R. 250-RICR-140-30-2.10

Amended effective 4/22/2020