By Matt Sepic, KWMU
St. Louis – Officials with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Thursday gave the city of St. Louis $400,000 to clean up old industrial sites known as brownfields.
Mayor Francis Slay said St. Louis has received more than $2 million in brownfield funds over the past several years.
"The city has been able to both identify and clean up a number of brownfields throughout the city, and thus has put such sites back into productive use," Slay said.
Slay said half of the money will go toward the former Pruitt-Igoe housing project site and the Carondelet Coke plant. The rest is going toward petroleum cleanup at abandoned gas stations.
The grant comes from legislation President Bush signed last year that also protects buyers of contaminated land from EPA lawsuits.
EPA officials also said St. Louis will host the national brownfields convention in September.