SACO, Maine (AP) - A Maine congresswoman says an award of $1.1 million in grants to clean up brownfields in her state illustrates the importance of protecting the program from budget cuts.
Rep. Chellie Pingree, a Democrat, says the federal Environmental Protection Agency is giving the money to a pair of organizations to provide low-interest loans for cleanup and redevelopment of polluted sites.
Pingree says the EPA’s brownfields program is looking at a budget cut of about 30 percent under President Donald Trump’s budget proposal. She says such a cut would make it more difficult to redevelop former industrial sites in Maine and elsewhere.
The grant is divided between $600,000 for the Southern Maine Planning and Development Commission in Saco and $500,000 for the Kennebec Valley Council of Governments in Fairfield.
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