The Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development’s (DEED) efforts since 1995 leveraged $3 billion in private investment in the state, $70 million in increased tax base, 31,000 new and retained jobs and the clean up of 3,000 acres of contaminated land, the federal government noted in honoring DEED recently.
DEED received the national honor during the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) national conference in New Orleans. The Saint Paul Port Authority nominated DEED for the national honor.
DEED launched the statewide Contamination Cleanup and Investigation Grant Program in 1995. Since that time, more than $112 million in grants have been awarded to more than 200 projects. The Port Authority received more than $17 million of that total in contamination cleanup and redevelopment grants.
The DEED programming started with state appropriations funding to get contaminated sites back into productive reuse. Prior to the establishment of this program, sites went through the Superfund process and could be tied up for years. The Contamination Cleanup and Investigation Grant program aimed to jump start development.
A statutory requirement of the grant program, which awards nearly $4 million per grant cycle, is that a quarter of the funding is designated for rural areas. Site investigation grants are awarded up to $50,000 per project. The size of cleanup grants can vary, but average $500,000 per project.
The EPA Revolving Loan Fund grants provided to DEED throughout the years is used as gap financing for projects that use the Contamination Cleanup and Investigation grant program. To date, DEED RLF funding includes $3.1 million for hazardous substances and $2 million for petroleum.
