EPA selects SLU to receive $500,000 in environmental job grants

ST. LOUIS, Mo. (First Alert 4) - Saint Louis University will receive approximately $500,000 in grant money to help recruit and train environment workers for clean-up projects in the future.

That money will help train more than 80 students in environmental work, and the Environmental Protection Agency says it will lead to at least 60 jobs. They claim that will come from having more marketable skills.

The work is focused on brownfields, which the EPA defines as property under expansion or redevelopment with a history of hazardous substances or pollution concerns.

Basically, any property where its future use is affected by real or supposed contamination affecting human and environmental health. The EPA says these could include former factories, railyards, dumping sites, structural fires, drug labs and other operations with dangerous chemicals.

The Brownfields program focuses on providing technical and management experience, alongside health work, to workers in areas handling brownfields situations.

Graduates will have certifications of multiple types, which help to improve their chances of getting hired after college, and hopefully reduce contractual jobs by providing more tools for making environmental work a career, the EPA says.

Stemming from the EPA, the grants are part of the Brownfields Job Training Program, and officials say they’re focused on environmental justice and economic advancement. The training will include more than 200 hours of instructional coaching on environmental concerns like asbestos; OSHA safety; ecosystem restoration; hazardous waste management; lead abatement; mold remediation and soil sample testing.

This program offers funds to groups trying to create skilled environment workers in communities where active brownfield management is underway, according to the EPA. All of the applicants indicated they will work in areas that “include disadvantaged communities, as defined by the Climate and Economic Justice Screening Tool.”

The grants are part of the Biden istration’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.

Avery Martinez covers water, ag & the environment for First Alert 4. He is also a Report for America corps member, as well as a member of the Mississippi River Basin Ag & Water Desk. His coverage goes from corn farms to hunting concerns, and local water rates to buffalo health.