Purpose:
The Site Assessment Fund provides grants up to $1 million to eligible local units of government to assess the nature and extent of contamination at properties with economic development potential.

Goals of the Program:

To ensure safe reuse of abandoned, vacant, or underutilized properties that are known to be contaminated, and to promote redevelopment of brownfields.

Criteria:

The property must have economic development potential and result in both environmental and economic benefit. The funding request must be to conduct a Baseline Environmental Assessment, evaluate due care requirements, or remedial investigation, in compliance with Part 201 of the Natural Resources and Environmental Protection Act, 1994 PA 451, as amended, and proposed response activities will allow the applicant to market the property for sale to a new user. Funding will not be used to relieve a potentially responsible party of his/her obligation to remediate a site, nor will a potentially responsible party benefit from the expenditure of state funds.

Dollar Amount(s) Available (Min or Max):
Maximum grant award is $1 million dollars per community. 

Eligibility:

A list of eligible communities has been developed by the Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ). Eligibility is based on population, population density, average age of existing housing within the community, unemployment rate, and other factors. The list includes all communities on the Core Community List plus the cities of Baldwin , Hancock, Houghton, Kingsford, Munising, Negaunee, Port Huron , Rogers City and St. Ignace.

Application Process:

Applications were accepted on a continuing basis.

Source(s) of Funds:

Environmental Protection Bond Fund of 1988.

Authority:

Parts 195 and 201 of the Natural Resources and Environmental Protection Act, 1994 of PA 451, as amended.

For a list of SAF projects, please refer to the Consolidated Report.