By Kevin Lavery, KWMU
St. Louis, MO. – Officials with the Environmental Protection Agency were in St. Louis Friday to announce President Bush's proposal to increase funding for brownfield clean-up programs.
The president is asking for $210 million for brownfield redevelopment.
EPA regional administrator Jim Gulliford made that announcement at the old St. Louis City Hospital, which is being converted into condominiums. Gulliford says St. Louis has a large inventory of potential redevelopment sites.
"The community business leaders have invested their funds as well as applied for EPA dollars to do these assessments," Gulliford said. "There are a lot of things that are really coming together to make redevelopment of St. Louis a very viable commodity."
More than $7 million dollars in state and federal funding was used to remove asbestos, lead and other chemicals from the old hospital site.