Arizona Department of Environmental Quality Director Steve Owens announced that the ADEQ will award a $50,000 Brownfields grant to the City of St. Johns in Apache County to conduct an environmental evaluation of a former gas station and car dealership site where the City wants to build its new City Hall. The property is located at 70 E. Commercial Street in St. Johns.
Several underground storage tanks were operated on the property, but the tanks were closed years ago. The grant will be used to perform a Phase I Environmental Site Assessment to determine if the property has any contamination from petroleum or other substances. The assessment will be used to determine if further study or cleanup is needed.
"Our Brownfields program helps communities like St. Johns evaluate properties for potential environmental problems & then puts those properties back into productive use for the community," Director Owens said. "This grant not only will help the City put a blighted vacant property back to good use, it also will give St. Johns a great location for its new City Hall. We are very pleased to work with the City on this important project."
ADEQ will serve as the project manager & will hire a contractor to perform the site assessment work. Two private parties currently own the site & are donating it to the City.
A Brownfield is an abandoned or under-used property with an active redevelopment potential that suffers from known or perceived environmental contamination.
Director Owens awarded St. Johns another Brownfields grant in August 2007 to perform an Environmental Site Assessment of a 5-acre former uncontrolled construction dump site where the City plans to expand its public cemetery, to determine if the site has been contaminated by the illegal dumping. The site is a vacant land parcel located immediately north of the City Yard facility at 405 W. 4th North Street, near the current cemetery.