About the Program

About the Northern and Southern WV Brownfields Assistance Centers:
In 2005, the WV State Legislature recognized the lost economic and social value in abandoned contaminated lands or "brownfields." The Legislature created the Northern and Southern Brownfields Assistance Centers to work with WVDEP and the WVDO to support community efforts to turn these brownfields into productive land again.
Duties include, but are not limited to the following:

1. Acquiring property that is eligible for state and federal Brownfield assistance;
2. Serving as the developer of the property for the purposes of managing and coordinating remediation and redevelopment activities;
3. Preparing and updating an inventory of Brownfield sites;
4. Providing training and technical assistance on Brownfield development, grant writing, site assessments, remediation, community involvement and site preparation to eligible entities;
5. Administering federal Brownfield financial assistance programs to assist eligible entities in their Brownfield development efforts;
6. Coordinating efforts to secure federal Brownfield funding by establishing priority rankings while maximizing federal financial assistance and eliminating overlapping competition for federal dollars;
7. Coordinating the development and publication of a website to provide education and appropriate information on Brownfields development in West Virginia; and
8. Coordinating with the West Virginia Development Office and the Department of Environmental Protection to establish and track key Brownfield economic statistics and conduct Brownfield conferences.

The Northern WV Brownfields Assistance Center:

The Northern West Virginia Brownfields Assistance Center, housed at West Virginia University's Water Research Institute, empowers communities to plan and implement brownfields redevelopment projects in the state's northern 33 counties by conducting general citizen and local government education efforts and by providing assistance to specific local communities interested the reuse of brownfields in their communities. Support can be provided to help groups solicit grants and low-interest loans for site assessments, clean-ups, and environmental job training as well as provide support for preliminary legal and planning work. The Center prioritizes requests from communities that are already working on community-wide development planning and may be interested in integrating brownfields redevelopment into those plans.

Counties served:

Barbour	Grant	Jefferson	Morgan	Ritchie	Wetzel
Berkeley	Hampshire	Lewis	Pendleton	Taylor	Wood
Calhoun	Hardy	Marshall	Pleasants	Tucker
Doddridge	Harrison	Mineral	Preston	Tyler
Gilmer	Jackson	Monongalia	Randolph	Upshur

The Southern WV Brownfields Assistance Center:
The Southern West Virginia Brownfield Assistance Center will increase brownfield activity in the designated 22 counties through the following primary objectives:

1. Economic development: Facilitate income generation from brownfields sites.
2. Workforce development: Enhance job training through both site rehabilitation and attraction of new employers.
3. Site revitalization: Transform real property liabilities into community assets.
4. Sustainable funding: Develop a diversified income stream for the Brownfield Assistance Center so that we can continue to serve the economic development needs of southern West Virginia Communities.

Counties served:

Boone	Greenbrier	McDowell	Pocahontas	Webster
Braxton	Kanawha	Mercer	Putnam	Wyoming
Cabell	Lincoln	Mingo	Raleigh
Clay	Logan	Monroe	Summers
Fayette	Mason	Nicholas	Wayne