Efforts to Gauge Pollution Will Slow During Pandemic, EPA Says

Nationwide efforts to assess contamination are expected to slow during the coronavirus pandemic, the director of the EPA’s brownfields program said Wednesday.

• David Lloyd, director of the Environmental Protection Agency’s Office of Brownfields and Land Revitalization, said in a webinar he expects slower site assessments because they require the oversight of state governments, which are focused on virus response.
• The EPA’s program distributes grant funding for the assessment and cleanup of brownfield sites, which are underutilitzed properties that may or may not be contaminated.
• The EPA’s brownfield funding process hasn’t been affected, Lloyd said. He expects the impact on individual sites to come mostly from virus-related restrictions set by each individual state or jurisdiction.