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A multimillion-dollar urban park project in Astoria recently received a financing boost from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

The Heritage Square project will receive $200,000 to conduct an environmental assessment of the park site and another $200,000 for cleanup activities, according to Susan Morales, an EPA brownfield coordinator based in Seattle.

The city broke ground in April on the Heritage Square project, which will transform a full block of the downtown area into a new Chinese garden, market plaza, boardwalk and amphitheater.

But part of the site includes a section of Duane Street that was once occupied by an auto repair shop, dry cleaner and later a printer. Because those businesses may have left behind toxins in the soil and groundwater, the EPA considers the site a brownfield, and the project thus qualifies for funding to help redevelop it.

Astoria was one of nine cities to win a chunk of the $3.8 million that the EPA distributed as part of its new 鈥渕ulti-purpose鈥� grant program, which is a pilot effort in which the agency distributes funds for brownfield assessment and cleanup simultaneously.