MDEQ News Release: City of Kingsford Awarded Grant to Conduct Environmental Investigation

For Immediate Release: September 27, 2017     

Contact:

Ryan Londrigan, MDEQ Brownfield Coordinator, LondriganR@michigan.gov, 989-891-6072

Melody Kindraka, MDEQ Public Information Officer, kindrakam1@michigan.gov, 517-284-6716

City of Kingsford Awarded Grant to Conduct

Environmental Investigation

A $60,000 Michigan Department of Environmental Quality (MDEQ) brownfield redevelopment grant was awarded to the City of Kingsford to investigate environmental contamination at the Lodal Inc. property on Breitung Road. The investigation must be conducted before the underutilized manufacturing plant can be sold to a new owner who will increase production and create new jobs.

The brownfield grant will help the city assess the current levels of environmental contamination at the site, which was previously owned by Ford Motor Company and Kingsford Chemical Company. Once the environmental conditions are known, Jastan, LLC plans to purchase the property from Lodal, Inc., the current owner. Jastan will continue to manufacture waste collection trucks and plans to expand into other products. Jastan expects to create more than 20 new jobs in the first two years after its purchase.

Brownfield redevelopment grants and loans are awarded by the MDEQ to local governments for environmental activities on brownfield properties where redevelopment is proposed. Brownfields are vacant or abandoned properties with known or suspected environmental contamination.

The MDEQ’s grants and loans have resulted in over $4 billion in private investment and nearly 29,000 new jobs over the life of the Brownfield Redevelopment Program. For each dollar invested in environmental cleanup by the MDEQ, an average of $23 is invested in the state’s economy. When brownfields are redeveloped, property values increase both on the cleaned-up site and on other nearby properties, creating new tax revenues for communities. Learn more at www.michigan.gov/deqbrownfields.

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