The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has announced the selection of $6.85 million in Brownfields Grants to communities in Oregon. Nationwide, $267 million in grants are being awarded.

Federal grant recipients must satisfy legal and administrative requirements to receive funds from EPA, an EPA press release states. Brownfield Grants include Assessment, Revolving Loan Fund, and Cleanup Grants.

Assessment Grants will provide funding for brownfield inventories, planning, environmental assessments and community outreach. Oregon is receiving four Assessment Grants.

• The city of Beaverton will receive $500,000;
• Northwest Oregon Economic Alliance will receive $1.2 million;
• the city of Portland will receive $500,000; and
• Tillamook County will receive $500,000.

Cleanup Grants will provide money to carry out cleanup activities at brownfield sites owned by the recipient. Oregon is receiving three Cleanup Grants.

• The city of Astoria will receive $2 million;
• the North Plains Urban Renewal Agency will receive $500,000; and
• the city of Portland will receive $500,000.

Supplemental Revolving Loan Fund Grants are awarded to high-performing recipients to help communities continue their work to carry out cleanup and redevelopment projects on contaminated brownfield properties. Supplemental funding for Revolving Loan Fund Grants is available to recipients that have depleted their funds and have viable cleanup projects ready for work. Oregon has one recipient of a Supplemental RFL Grant:

• The Oregon Business Development Department will receive $650,000.

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By Juan A. Lozano

The Associated Press

HOUSTON — The faded and weathered construction permits still taped to Houston resident Mal Moses’ front door are reminders of the difficulties he faced in trying to get his mold-infested walls and leaky roof repaired after Hurricane Harvey struck in 2017.

But living in the Trinity-Houston Gardens neighborhood has always been hard, Moses said. His family endured racial slurs and harassment as some of the first Black residents to move in during the late 1960s, he said. When white residents left, he added, resources such as consistent trash collection and a properly working drainage system seemed to disappear as well.

In Harvey’s wake, Moses, 65, expected denial of government help. And he certainly wasn’t surprised by federal officials’ conclusion this year that the state had discriminated against minorities, particularly Black residents, in how it distributed hurricane-related flood relief money.

“It was just another example (of discrimination) for me,” said Moses, who ultimately received help from local nonprofit West Street Recovery with home repairs. “I wasn’t shocked that it was being done because I experienced it firsthand growing up.”

Texas had an Aug. 26 deadline to enter into a voluntary agreement to address an investigation by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development that in March found the state had violated the Civil Rights Act of 1964 by causing there “to be disproportionately less funding available to benefit minority residents than was available to benefit white residents” in how it distributed more than $2 billion to fund flood mitigation projects after Harvey. That deadline passed without any resolution to the dispute.

The Texas General Land Office, or GLO, which oversees distribution of the funding, says its actions were not unlawful. In a letter sent Aug. 25 to HUD Secretary Marcia Fudge, Republican Gov. Greg Abbott said he did not plan to force the GLO to enter into any agreement because HUD had not proven that the state agency had discriminated based on race or national origin.

“HUD should close this case without following through on the threats made in your letter, which would only slow funding for Texans who truly need disaster mitigation,” Abbott stated.

HUD has threatened to refer the matter to the Justice Department for possible legal action.

“We are considering our options and have no further comment at this time,” HUD spokesman Michael Burns stated in an email.

The deadline passed amid the five-year anniversary of Harvey, which inundated the Houston area with torrential rain for days, flooding more than 150,000 homes and 300,000 vehicles. The storm, which first made landfall more than 200 miles southwest of Houston near Corpus Christi on Aug. 25, 2017, killed 68 people and caused an estimated $125 billion in damage in Texas. Many residents still have not recovered.

In an April letter to HUD, the land office’s attorneys defended how the funds were awarded, saying of the 108 projects that received money, 59 percent served minority-majority populations and of the 1.5 million Texans benefiting from the projects, more than 1 million were Hispanic.

“HUD’s objections are politically motivated and are factually and legally baseless,” the attorneys stated. “GLO did not engage in discrimination.”

Many Houston-area residents and officials were outraged when they learned the land office’s initial distribution of $1 billion didn’t include one cent for their hard-hit communities. Other cities with large minority populations also flooded by Harvey, including Beaumont, Corpus Christi and Port Arthur along the Texas Gulf Coast, also got no funding.

A Houston Chronicle investigation found the land office’s initial $1 billion distribution disproportionately flowed to inland counties with less damage than to coastal communities that bore the brunt of Harvey.

Where the money was spent is “so clearly not where the harm was done and where the risk is for future disasters,” said Ben Martin, research director for Texas Housers, an Austin-based nonprofit that joined Houston group Northeast Action Collective in filing the initial complaint with HUD.

After bipartisan criticism of the lack of funding for the Houston area, the land office awarded $750 million to Harris County, home to the nation’s fourth-largest city, but still nothing for Houston.

Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner on Aug. 24 urged HUD to enforce its ruling against the state, saying the federal agency’s integrity “is on the line.”

Moses, who is part of the Northeast Action Collective, said that in Harvey’s wake, he had to live in his home, full of mold and dust, while it was repaired and as he underwent treatment for lung cancer. During the two-year repair process, his mother, who shared the house with him and adored it, had to live elsewhere.

She died four days after she was finally able to return in 2020.

While Moses’ house is in fairly good shape now, that is not the case for many of his neighbors’ homes, he said. Residents are either struggling to fully restore their homes or recover financially from repairs they paid for themselves, he said. They also worry if enough has been done to protect their real estate from the next storm.

“I’m just holding on, holding on … and I’m hoping that the (federal) government steps in … and makes sure the money gets appropriated correctly,” Moses said.

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A new federal transportation bill unveiled by House Republicans last week elicited resounding opposition in Oregon.

The House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee’s chairman, John Mica, R-Fla., last week introduced the . It’s a $260 billion proposal to repair U.S. infrastructure, reauthorize transportation programs for five years and increase opportunities for domestic oil drilling.

Cyclists’ perspective on House Resolution 7

“This bill reverses decades of progress we’ve made to create safe routes to school and encourage safety on our streets for all users of the roadway,” said Gerik Kransky, advocacy director for the Bicycle Transportation Alliance, a Portland-based nonprofit.

“It’s time to kill House Resolution 7,” he said. “It eliminates dedicated funding for biking and walking, slashes funding for transit services, and the way we see it – will actually make streets less safe.”

According to Kransky, Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said last week that the highway spending plan is “the worst transportation bill” he’s seen in decades.

The bill would eliminate the Transportation Enhancements program, which sets aside money for pedestrian and bicycle projects not normally required on highway or transportation projects. The program, since its creation in 1992, has generated 190 Oregon projects worth a total of $97 million.

Projects approved in last year’s Transportation Enhancements program were awarded a total of $15.99 million in federal money. Including local matches, $19.13 million was spent on Oregon projects. They included:

• Completion of The Dalles Riverfront Trail – $1.55 million federal award;
• Pedestrian access to Powellhurst-Gilbert neighborhood schools on Southeast Holgate Boulevard and Ramona Street in Portland – $1.48 million federal award; and
• Construction of the second phase of the Middle Fork Willamette River Path between Springfield and Eugene – $1.6 million federal award.

But in a committee vote last week, every Democrat and even one Republican opposed the bill. Lawmakers, however, are expected to search for a compromise before the present law expires on March 31.

Opponents have a slew of objections to the nearly 900-page bill, including its emphasis on new highway construction, the elimination of money dedicated for projects to aid bicyclists and pedestrians, and reduction of long-term planning for public transit.

“This bill says it’s a waste to spend highway trust dollars to protect cyclists, pedestrians or children, (and that) all of that money should just go into highway projects,” said Rep. Peter DeFazio, D-Ore., who represents Southwest Oregon and is a senior member of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee. “It takes us back to pre-1980 in terms of the federal government’s participation in transit. It’s quite radical stuff.”

The bill would eliminate the Transportation Enhancements program, which requires states to set aside a percentage of federal money for bike and pedestrian programs. Instead, those allocations would be left entirely up to each state.

Mica and the bill’s supporters hail the proposal for cutting red tape and addressing critical transportation needs without earmarks.

But Travis Brouwer, federal affairs advisor for the Oregon Department of Transportation, said that even without mandated spending, Oregon is likely to continue investing a portion of its federal money in biking and pedestrian programs now being paid for via Transportation Enhancements.

“(The bill) wouldn’t have a major impact on bike and pedestrian projects,” Brouwer said. “We’d have to modify our Transportation Enhancement program, but we’d still be allowed to continue funding those projects.”

Andrew Cotugno, a policy advisor for Metro, is not as optimistic that active transportation would trump other infrastructure projects for funding if federal mandates were eliminated.

“There is a strong level of support in Oregon around a comprehensive transportation system, but we don’t know if it would remain once new flexibility is provided,” Cotugno said. “In other parts of the country that are antagonistic toward these programs, advocates are saying that spending on bike and pedestrian programs will go away in an instant.”

Supporters of public transportation investments also are concerned about potential impacts of the bill.

“If transit is not part of the highway trust fund, it seems like a very dangerous place to be,” said Alan Lehto, director of planning and policy for TriMet. “My concern is that there wouldn’t be as much federal funding available at all, no matter how forward-thinking we are about what kinds of infrastructure we need.”

While states would have more power to decide how to spend federal money, some programs would be eliminated entirely. The bill, for instance, would prohibit federal money from being used on the Safe Routes to School Program, which provides infrastructure improvements, education programs, and safety training to encourage kids to bike or walk to school.

Oregon receives an annual allocation of approximately $2 million, according to Brouwer.

“I’ve visited a number of schools in my district that participated. The parents are thrilled; the kids are away from dangerous intersections … it’s a great success nationwide,” DeFazio said. “That program was created when Republicans were in charge … but this is a much more mean-spirited bunch.”

By a narrow 29-27 margin, the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee last week voted against restoring money for Safe Routes to School and Transportation Enhancements.

The bill is expected to go to the House floor for a vote by the end of the month, although if it were to pass in its present form, it likely would not be signed into law, according to DeFazio and several others.

The Senate drafted a transportation reauthorization bill with bipartisan support, and a temporary extension of the present law likely would pass in order to allow more time for negotiations.

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President Barack Obama on Thursday night asked Congress to quickly approve his $477 billion American Jobs Act proposal, which includes $105 billion for infrastructure and construction spending.

Initial reaction from built industry professionals – both locally and nationally – is that any increase in federal spending on infrastructure and other construction projects is sorely needed and much appreciated. But as with Obama’s $787 billion American Recovery and Reinvestment Act in 2009, industry professionals say they think any positive effects will most likely be short lived.

“Any effort is appreciated as we can all agree that we need more jobs,” said John Killin, president of the Oregon chapter of the Associated Builders and Contractors. “But as an organization we bought into the stimulus package, which this looks an awful lot like. As soon as the stimulus money dried up, our unemployment rate in Oregon rose again.”

A large portion of Obama’s plan focuses on the extension of unemployment benefits and tax breaks for small businesses. The rest focuses on short-term spending to modernize schools, fund federal infrastructure projects, and rehabilitate and repurpose vacant space in neighborhoods across the country.

While Killin likes the intent of the effort – getting people back to work – he doesn’t agree that the package offers a real solution to that problem.

“These tweaks and holidays don’t work,” he said. “We need to roll back these barriers to doing business and remove the regulations that are hurting the people that create jobs.”

U.S. Rep. Earl Blumenauer, D-Ore., a senior member of the House Budget and Ways and Means committees, voiced similar concerns in a statement he released following the president’s speech. But Blumenauer said he wants to keep an open mind until he is able to examine the plan in greater detail.

“I don’t believe that tax cuts will create as many jobs as investing in infrastructure, but I look forward to reading the president’s plan and to (learning) more details,” Blumenauer said in his statement. “We must guard against people just taking the easy political step of cutting taxes and not the heavy lifting of tax reform and funding our failing infrastructure.”

Others had fewer reservations, if any.

John Mohlis, executive secretary-treasurer with the Columbia Pacific Building Trades Council, said he considers any proposal that pays for infrastructure and puts people back to work to be a good thing in the current economy.

Tom Chamberlain, president of Oregon AFL-CIO, agreed. He believes the plan could really benefit Oregon.

“I saw a lot of good stuff, especially the transportation stuff,” Chamberlain said. “Hopefully there’s some money in there for the (Columbia River Crossing) project. That would have a direct positive impact not only on Oregon construction workers but our entire unemployment rate and the economy in general.”

The American Institute of Architects also voiced strong support for the president’s plan, especially the money dedicated to construction spending. The organization estimates that every $1 billion invested in nonresidential design and construction results in 28,500 full-time jobs. By that calculation, Obama’s plan could result in nearly 3 million jobs.

But while the AIA supports the spending in the plan, the organization is also calling for at least one more addition – the continuation of the Build America Bonds program.

“In the two short years that the program was authorized, state and local governments used Build America Bonds to finance roughly $180 billion (of) new construction projects, preserving tens of thousands of jobs,” AIA President Clark Manus said. “We estimate that at least $45 billion of that amount was used in the construction sector to finance schools, offices, hospitals and other building projects that improve communities.”

The U.S. Green Building Council took a similar stance. Rick Fedrizzi, president and CEO of the U.S. Green Building Council, offered the organization’s full support of the proposal and its passage. But he also mentioned several energy-efficient tax incentives that could be included to create more jobs.

“Specifically in commercial building, we know fixing the tax incentive for energy-efficient commercial buildings, Section 179D, could create 77,000 additional jobs in energy efficiency,” he said in a statement about the plan. “I hope Congress will strongly consider this commonsense tax fix.”

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A Bend-based company that does engineering and consulting work in renewable energy will receive $1.5 million from the U.S. Department of Energy.

The DOE announced today it would fund nearly $17 million in grants to support 16 hydropower projects in 11 states. The projects were selected through a competitive process for their ability to advance hydropower in terms of environmental performance, innovation, cost-effectiveness and energy-generation from resources less than 30 megawatts.

The Bend-based company, Earth by Design, focuses on using the natural currents of rivers, streams and canals to generate power without building dams. The company will use the new funding to develop and test new hydropower technology in a canal in the North Unit Irrigation District and will study low-head sites, meaning areas with less than a 30-foot drop.

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Portland City Council announced on Wednesday that the city is looking to fund a slew of transportation projects using federal and city funds, paving the way for better pedestrian, cyclist and freight traffic.

But what about people who don’t care about cyclists and their copious amounts of self-righteousness? Well, the city has allotted, upon approval from regional government Metro, millions in sidewalk and road improvements. And for those who live free and do not drive? Bike sharing is coming to Portland!

The city council proposed investing 4 million in federal/private seed money upon the approval of the Metro’s council to get a bike-sharing program started here in the capital of all things hip and bike related. The initial bike share area – 74 bike stations with 740 bikes – would follow the downtown streetcar loop and other spots that show bike share potential, like the yellow line MAX station near the Portland Community College Cascade campus.

Bike sharing is praised throughout the world, and according the city, the program would make for 500,000 new bike trips in the program’s first year in operation.

Hyped as it is, bike sharing is not flawless. Last month, after four months of operation, Miami’s private bike share operation “DecoBike” even 20 percent of its advertising revenue goals. How Portland’s bike share revenue pans out remains to be seen.

Check out the full text of the and check out a of the project.

Photo by via Flickr

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Oregon received $19.5 million in grant awards for 16 highway projects from the Federal Highway Administration this week.

The awards, announced Wednesday, were part of an allocation of $417.3 million in grants from the FHWA through 14 grant programs run through the administration. The administration awarded grants through a competitive process and reportedly received applications for funds totaling over 30 times the amount of funds available.

“Transportation investments like these will create jobs, increase mobility, improve quality of life for all Americans and strengthen our national economy,” said U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood in a release. “The demand from the states for these funds shows just how critical the need is for infrastructure investment.”

The Columbia River Crossing project received $3 million for development and design, and a grant of $3.6 million was awarded to improve an Interstate 5 southbound ramp at the Kuebler Interchange in Marion County. The other projects funded include constructing trails, sidewalks and roof repairs on three covered bridges.

• Constructing a 1.6-mile, 12-foot-wide, multi-use, ADA-accessible trail through the Historic Columbia River Highway State Trail to improve access for bicycles and pedestrians – $2,109,000
• Constructing multi-use path to connect the Lava Lands Visitors’ Center, located at the Newberry National Volcanic Monument, to Sunriver – $1,877,000
• Constructing Westport Ferry Landing in Clatsop County – $1,830,000
• Improving access on U.S. Route 20/Cascade Avenue by upgrading pavement and reconstructing sidewalks – $1,660,606
• Constructing Welcome Station at Cascade Lakes National Scenic Byway – $1,039,040
• Making safety improvements to U.S. Route 26 Mill Creek Jefferson County Line – $923,000
• Replacing the roof and making other improvements to the Rochester Covered Bridge – $845,985
• Constructing Division Street Corridor “Complete Street” multi-use paths and sidewalks – $832,640
• Repairing roof and surface of the Larwood Covered Bridge as well as installing a vandalism protection system – $708,428
• Constructing a trail and installing signs on Pacific Coast Scenic Byway – $412,930
• Replacing damaged sections of the Belknap Covered Bridge – $390,230
• Replacing the roof and siding of the Grave Creek Covered Bridge – $92,545
• Developing rest area plans and installing signs along Historic Columbia River Highway – $72,000
• Repairing the roof and siding of the Pass Creek Covered Bridge – $62,922

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Portland City Council today approved a list of projects to pass on for regional government Metro‘s approval as part of the Regional Flexible Funds program.

Metro’s Regional Flexible Funds program allocates funds from two federal grant programs: the Surface Transportation Program and the Congestion Mitigation/Air Quality Program. It has $24 million to allocate among local cities and counties for projects in 2014 and 2015.

At today’s meeting, council approved Portland‘s nomination of four projects, which would be partially funded by a total of $9 million from the flexible funds.

The request includes the following:

• $3.36 million for pedestrian and bicyclist improvements in the area south of Interstate 84, east of Interstate 205 and north of Foster Road
• $1.25 million for pedestrian and bike safety along three portions of Southeast Foster Road between 63^rd and 84^th avenues
• $2 million to develop a large-scale bike sharing program
• $2.36 million to improve the intersection of North Time Oil and Burgard roads for freight usage

Metro will collect nominations and form a list, which will go out for public comment in September. Metro will act on the final allocation at its Dec. 15 meeting.

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President Obama announced today that the U.S. Departments of Agriculture, Energy and Navy will invest up to $510 million into biofuels during the next three years.

A private-public funded project, Obama hopes to spur growth in America’s biofuel infrastructure for military and commercial uses. Citing his focus on energy security and job creation, Obama remarked:

“… Supporting biofuels cannot be the role of government alone. That’s why we’re partnering with the private sector to speed development of next-generation biofuels that will help us continue to take steps towards energy independence and strengthen communities across our country.”

In a political climate where government spending has become anathema and in a country that spends more than $300 billion a year on imported crude oil annually, it seems like a decent move.

That said, I hope some of that money will find its way away from corn-based biofuels and to other, more efficient biofuel feedstocks.

If not, I fear the results will be as about as sensible as the screams of a . Mixing corn into something other than tortilla chips is just plain stupid!

Photo by via Flickr

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Metro Council, the ruling body of regional government Metro, is taking input on how to spend $22 million on transportation projects around the region.

Every two years, Metro distributes funds received though two federal programs via its regional flexible funding program. The money pays for projects in the Regional Transportation Plan, which are nominated by local agencies. The funds comprise about 4 percent of the money spent on transportation in the region but can be spent on a wider range of projects than typical federal funds.

Previous councils have allocated funds to be spent on bike trails, road improvements and upgrades to reduce emissions from the diesel engines of school buses.

The city of Portland and its three counties are each hosting meetings this month in which they will decide which projects to nominate to Metro Council by Aug. 29. Metro Council will then compile a list, which will go to public comment in September. The final list will be approved by council in December.

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