FY22 GUIDELINES FOR BROWNFIELD REVOLVING LOAN FUND GRANTS | EPA OLEM OBLR 21 05

Opportunity Information: Apply for EPA OLEM OBLR 21 05

The FY22 Guidelines for Brownfield Revolving Loan Fund (RLF) Grants is a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) funding opportunity issued under the EPA Brownfields Program to help communities and other eligible entities address contaminated or potentially contaminated properties known as brownfields. Rooted in the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA) and updated through the Brownfields Utilization, Investment, and Local Development (BUILD) Act (Public Law 115-141), the program reflects a federal priority to move stalled or underused properties back into productive use by supporting activities that lead to assessment and cleanup. The guidance functions as the application roadmap for organizations seeking RLF funding and explains how EPA intends to award and manage these grants.

This opportunity is offered as a discretionary award and uses a cooperative agreement as the funding instrument. In practice, that means funding is competitive and not automatic, and that EPA typically remains more actively involved than it would under a standard grant. The cooperative agreement structure is commonly used when the agency expects to provide substantial programmatic involvement, oversight, or technical engagement during the period of performance, which fits the brownfields context where cleanup planning, compliance, and redevelopment coordination can be complex.

RLF grants are designed to create or expand a locally managed source of capital that can be loaned out (and, in some cases, complemented with subawards) to support eligible cleanup work at brownfield sites. The core idea is that instead of funding a single cleanup one time, EPA helps an eligible recipient build a revolving loan program: money is lent for cleanup projects, repaid over time, and then re-lent to support additional cleanups. This approach aims to stretch federal dollars further, enable multiple projects over multiple years, and build local capacity to manage environmental cleanup financing.

The funding announcement identifies the EPA as the awarding agency and places the opportunity within the environmental funding activity category. The Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance (CFDA) listing associated with the program is 66.818, which corresponds to the EPA Brownfields Program. The opportunity number is EPA OLEM OBLR 21 05, indicating it is administered through EPA's Office of Land and Emergency Management (OLEM), which includes the Brownfields Program.

In terms of available funding, the announcement lists an award ceiling of up to $1,000,000 per award, with an expectation of approximately 8 awards. While the ceiling communicates the maximum anticipated award size, actual awards can vary based on EPA priorities, application strength, funding availability, and the proposed scope and readiness of the revolving loan program. Because RLF programs involve financial management, lending policies, and ongoing oversight, EPA typically looks for applicants who can demonstrate both a pipeline of potential cleanup projects and the administrative and financial systems needed to run a loan fund responsibly.

Eligibility is summarized in the listing as "Others (see text field entitled Additional Information on Eligibility for clarification)," which signals that the full funding opportunity announcement contains specific eligibility rules and definitions. Generally, EPA brownfields funding is aimed at empowering states, communities, tribes, and nonprofit organizations, and the description emphasizes that the program supports entities working to prevent, inventory, assess, clean up, and reuse brownfield sites. For this specific RLF opportunity, the detailed eligibility language and any limitations or special conditions are located in the full announcement, and applicants are expected to rely on those specifics when determining whether they qualify and how they must structure partnerships or subrecipient relationships.

The original posting date for this opportunity is September 21, 2021, and the original closing date is December 1, 2021, with a note directing applicants to Section IV of the funding opportunity announcement for authoritative deadline information. That note is important because federal opportunities sometimes include multiple deadlines, different due dates for various components, or revisions and extensions that are captured in the official announcement rather than in the high-level summary.

Overall, this grant guidance frames a competitive EPA funding opportunity to help eligible organizations establish or expand revolving loan funds that finance brownfield cleanups, with the broader goal of reducing environmental risks, removing barriers to redevelopment, and enabling the reuse of properties that have been difficult to redevelop due to real or perceived contamination.

• The Environmental Protection Agency in the environment sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "FY22 GUIDELINES FOR BROWNFIELD REVOLVING LOAN FUND GRANTS" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 66.818.
• This funding opportunity was created on Sep 21, 2021.
• Applicants must submit their applications by Dec 01, 2021 See Section IV of the funding opportunity announcement for close date information.. (Agency may still review applications by suitable applicants for the remaining/unused allocated funding in 2026.)
• Each selected applicant is eligible to receive up to $1,000,000.00 in funding.
• The number of recipients for this funding is limited to 8 candidate(s).
• Eligible applicants include: Others (see text field entitled Additional Information on Eligibility for clarification).

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