Rhode Island Code of Regulations › Title 250 - Department of Environmental Management › Chapter 140 - Waste and Materials Management › Subchapter 30 - Site Remediation › Part 2 - Rules and Regulations for the Brownfields Remediation and Economic Development Fund › Section 250-RICR-140-30-2.10 - Project Categories and Eligible Costs

Current through June 14, 2024
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.
2.10.1
Project 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).