On June 25, 2026, Representative Wesley Bell (D-MO-01) announced $500,000 in EPA Brownfields Assessment Grant funding for Bethlehem Lutheran Church in north St. Louis. The grant supports brownfield inventory planning, environmental site assessments, and community outreach—part of more than $7 million in EPA Brownfields funding awarded to Missouri.
North St. Louis has a new tool in its fight against blight. On June 25, 2026, Representative Wesley Bell (D-MO-01) announced $500,000 in federal funding to clean up and revitalize land in St. Louis. That money flows directly to Bethlehem Lutheran Church in the northern part of the city. The funding comes through the EPA’s Brownfields Assessment Grant Program—one of the country’s most proven tools for turning contaminated land into community assets.
This announcement matters beyond the dollar amount. For years, vacant and potentially contaminated properties have depressed property values, strained public health resources, and weakened economic opportunity in north St. Louis. Now, this grant gives Bethlehem Lutheran Church the resources to take the critical first step: finding out what’s in the ground and what it will take to make the land safe.
St. Louis’s $500,000 is also part of a much larger investment. Missouri received more than $7 million in EPA Brownfields grants in this funding round, with recipients in Kansas City, Springfield, and St. Louis. Nationally, the EPA Brownfields Program has delivered over $3 billion in grants since 1995, sparking far larger downstream investments in cleanup and redevelopment. The St. Louis announcement is the latest chapter in that national story—and one of the most locally significant in recent memory.
What Is the EPA Brownfields Assessment Grant Program?
The EPA founded the Brownfields Program in 1995 with a clear mission: take abandoned, contaminated, or underutilized properties—known as brownfields—and make them safe and useful again. Over the past three decades, the program has become one of the federal government’s most effective tools for community revitalization and environmental remediation.
An Assessment Grant, like the one Bethlehem Lutheran Church received, funds the early-stage work that makes cleanup possible. That includes brownfield inventories, environmental site assessments, community engagement, and planning. Without this foundational step, brownfields often sit idle for years. They’re too uncertain and too risky for private developers to touch.
The program operates through cooperative agreements between the EPA and eligible entities. Those entities can include local governments, nonprofits, and—as in the St. Louis case—faith-based organizations. The EPA selects grant recipients through a competitive process that weighs community need, project viability, and long-term redevelopment potential.
$500,000 for St. Louis Land Revitalization — What It Means for the Community
For north St. Louis, this grant arrives at a pivotal moment. The neighborhood carries a long history of industrial activity, population decline, and disinvestment. As a result, contaminated property cleanup has been repeatedly deferred. Federal funding like this bridges the gap between good intentions and real action on the ground.
Bethlehem Lutheran Church will use the $500,000 to plan brownfield inventories, commission environmental site assessments, and conduct community outreach on underutilized properties nearby. These activities build the foundation for future cleanup and redevelopment. Without that assessment data, no lender, developer, or government agency can responsibly move forward.
Bethlehem Lutheran Church as the Grant Recipient
Bethlehem Lutheran Church’s selection as the grant recipient stands out. Faith-based institutions have long served as anchors in north St. Louis, holding their place through decades of demographic and economic change. By choosing the church to lead brownfield inventory and environmental assessment work, the EPA channels resources through an organization the community already trusts.
The church will directly address vacant and potentially contaminated properties near its congregation. According to the EPA’s announcement, the assessment activities will help prepare those properties for eventual reuse—whether as housing, green space, community facilities, or commercial development.
Congressman Bell’s Statement on Environmental Revitalization
Representative Wesley Bell put the funding in direct, community-centered terms. “St. Louisans deserve to live in clean and environmentally safe areas,” Bell said. “These federal funds will help our city assess and eventually transform what are now dilapidated and sometimes uninhabitable areas. I’m proud to help bring this needed funding back home.”
Bell’s statement highlights a dimension of brownfields cleanup that often gets overlooked: it’s a public health issue as much as an economic one. Contaminated properties don’t just sit dormant—they expose nearby residents to environmental hazards and signal to investors that a neighborhood isn’t worth the risk. Assessment grants break that cycle.
Missouri’s Share — $7 Million in EPA Brownfields Grants
St. Louis’s $500,000 is one piece of a far larger Missouri investment. In June 2026, the EPA allocated over $7 million in Brownfields Multipurpose, Assessment and Cleanup (MAC) grants and supplemental Revolving Loan Fund (RLF) funding to recipients across the state.
The full roster of Missouri recipients includes:
- $1,000,000 to the Urban Neighborhood Initiative of Kansas City — a Multipurpose Grant covering brownfield inventories, planning, environmental assessments, community outreach, and cleanup activities.
- $500,000 to Bethlehem Lutheran Church in St. Louis — an Assessment Grant for brownfield inventories, planning, environmental assessments, and community outreach.
- Over $3.5 million to Springfield, Missouri — a Cleanup Grant to address contaminated brownfield sites the city owns.
- $1,000,000 to Springfield, Missouri — supplemental RLF funding for a high-performing revolving loan fund supporting brownfields redevelopment.
- $1,000,000 to Kansas City, Missouri — supplemental RLF funding for a high-performing revolving loan fund.
Together, these investments reach brownfields across Missouri’s largest cities. They create a statewide network of land revitalization activity that can attract private capital and generate jobs well beyond the initial grant amounts.
EPA Region 7 Administrator Jim Macy on Community Transformation
EPA Region 7 Administrator Jim Macy delivered a pointed statement alongside the funding announcement. “Congratulations to our Brownfields selectees in Missouri,” Macy said. “These grants have the power to transform communities by opening the door to reuse, revitalization, and economic growth. We are proud to deliver these resources to Region 7.”
Macy’s three-part frame—reuse, revitalization, economic growth—captures the core promise of the Brownfields program. Assessment grants don’t just clean up contaminated land. They unlock properties that uncertainty had frozen, making them available for the reinvestment that changes a neighborhood’s future.
The National Impact of EPA Brownfields Funding
The St. Louis and Missouri grants are part of a program with a remarkable national track record. Since 1995, the EPA Brownfields Program has quietly become one of the most effective federal tools for community economic development. The returns it generates far exceed the initial federal investment.
| Metric | Figure |
|---|---|
| Total EPA Brownfields grant funding (national, since 1995) | Over $3 billion |
| Total cleanup and redevelopment investment leveraged | More than $45 billion |
| Jobs created or supported | More than 228,900 |
| Average leverage ratio (through FY2025) | $19.47 per $1 of EPA grant funding |
Source: EPA Brownfields Program; data current through FY2025.
That leverage ratio deserves attention. For every federal dollar the Brownfields program invests, communities attract nearly $19.47 from public and private sources combined. That’s not a rounding error—it’s a direct result of what brownfields cleanup does. Once a contaminated property goes through assessment and remediation, it becomes insurable, financeable, and developable. The private market, previously locked out by environmental uncertainty, can finally step in.
The $500,000 grant to Bethlehem Lutheran Church is a small share of that national investment. Even so, applied to the right properties in north St. Louis, it could trigger the same outsized returns the program has produced in communities across the country.
How Brownfields Cleanup Transforms Blighted Property Into Community Assets
Environmental remediation and blighted property redevelopment take time. The EPA Brownfields process follows a structured sequence, and the Assessment Grant Bethlehem Lutheran Church received funds the earliest and most critical stages. Here’s how the process works:
- Step 1 — Brownfield Inventory: Identify and document all potentially contaminated or underutilized properties in the target area. This step maps where intervention is needed most.
- Step 2 — Phase I Environmental Site Assessment (ESA): Conduct a desktop review and site inspection to identify recognized environmental conditions (RECs)—past or present uses that might signal contamination.
- Step 3 — Phase II Environmental Site Assessment: When Phase I identifies RECs, teams collect and test soil, groundwater, and building samples to confirm the type and extent of contamination.
- Step 4 — Community Outreach and Engagement: Inform residents, local organizations, and other stakeholders about the assessment process and gather input on redevelopment priorities.
- Step 5 — Cleanup Planning: Develop a cleanup plan based on assessment findings. The plan must meet applicable environmental standards and prepare the site for its intended reuse.
- Step 6 — Cleanup and Redevelopment: Remove or contain contamination. Clear the site for reuse—whether as housing, commercial space, green infrastructure, or community facilities.
The $500,000 awarded to Bethlehem Lutheran Church covers Steps 1 through 4, and potentially into Step 5. That body of work builds the evidentiary foundation that every subsequent investment decision depends on.
Related St. Louis Revitalization Coverage
The EPA Brownfields grant to Bethlehem Lutheran Church is one of several significant community investment stories unfolding across greater St. Louis. For context on how community-driven revitalization reshapes neighborhoods in the metro area, see our coverage of Lansdowne UP: Building a Thriving Neighborhood in East St. Louis. That project shows what neighborhood transformation looks like when community organizations lead the way—exactly the kind of process Bethlehem Lutheran Church is now beginning in north St. Louis.
Learn More: EPA Brownfields Program Resources
For full details on the EPA Brownfields Assessment Grant Program—including eligibility requirements, application guidance, and a searchable database of funded projects—visit the EPA Brownfields Program page. The page offers resources for communities, developers, and local governments interested in pursuing brownfields assessment, cleanup, and revolving loan fund grants.
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