The program helps communities remove hazardous substances and clear the way for redevelopment of sites like former gasoline stations or dry cleaners.

"It's good common sense to turn a liability into an economic asset when you can do it, and these grants will help do that," said Senator Patrick Leahy, a senior member of the Interior Subcommittee of the Appropriations Committee.

"Redeveloping brownfields helps the environment and makes our communities better places to live," said Senator Bernie Sanders, who has urged the Senate to provide more funding for the program.

Rep. Peter Welch said, "This brownfield redevelopment funding is a win-win for Vermont, helping promote environmental clean-up and local economic development in our communities."

Here are Vermont recipients of the funds under the program administered by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the amount of the grants:

• Addison Regional Planning Commission $200,000.
• Northeastern Vermont Development Association $200,000
• Northwest Regional Planning Commission $200,000
• Rutland Regional Planning Commission $400,000
• Southern Windsor County Regional Planning Commission $100,000
• Two Rivers Ottauquechee Regional Planning Commission $200,000

Vermont will share in a nationwide total of $70.7 million in EPA Brownfields grants to help revitalize former industrial and commercial sites, turning them from problem properties to productive community use.

Sanders joined 25 Senate colleagues in urging full funding for the program.  "Cities, towns and rural communities are struggling to find the resources to redevelop over 450,000 bronwnfields throughout the country," the senators said in a March 27 letter to the chairman and ranking member of the Senate Appropriations Committee on the Interior.

The senators said the EPA program "has made tremendous progress," but they urged additional funding for the program that they said would "jumpstart thousands of additional revitalization projects, helping to return brownfields to productive uses, creating new jobs, generating additional tax revenue, improving and protecting the environment, and improving communities' overall quality of life."