Jim Callier, special assistant to the Division of Environmental Quality director, said they have been conducting an inventory of potential Brownfields sites for several years now.
Of the $750,000 awarded by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to the Department of Public Lands recently, $400,000 was for the community-wide Brownfield assessment project that covers different locations on Saipan, Rota and Tinian.
Callier said one of the criteria in prioritizing potential sites is the immediate use of the land for economic activities.
If there is a proposal, for example, to lease the land, then that particular property will be on top of the Brownfields list.
The new sites, which include former gas stations and garment factories, are not as big as the Marpi Brownfields area, Callier said.
DEQ and DPL have been given three years to use the Brownfields grant, he added.
In a separate interview, DPL Brownfields program manager Franz Reksid said DEQ and DPL have to select the potentially contaminated sites that will be prioritized.
When a “fairly good” list of priority sites is established, and the grant becomes available on Oct. 1, Reksid said they can bid out the projects to private contractors.
The other Brownfields project, which Reksid said is “site specific,” is the proposed landfill on Tinian which has received $350,000 in federal funds.
