The Ohio Water Development Authority (OWDA) created the Brownfield Loan Program in 1995 for the purposes of providing financial assistance for the undertaking of any “voluntary action” and thereby providing funding for the cleanup of contaminated property, through direct loans.

A direct fact sheet for the program is accessible here.

The JobsOhio Revitalization Program offers loans and grants to companies to redevelop underutilized properties — both land and buildings — and put them back into productive use. This funding mitigates the financial risk and accelerates the speed at which sites are redeveloped. Eligible sites include brownfields.

Additional information on the program, which includes loans, grants, and dollars for Phase II assessments, is accessible on the JobsOhio website.

In addition to the newly created Brownfield Remediation Fund, the Ohio Department of Development (ODOD) operates the Ohio Brownfield Fund. The Ohio Brownfield Fund is a collection of funding sources that can be used to help plan, assess, and remediate brownfields throughout the state.

ODOD, in partnership with Ohio EPA and the Department of Commerce, Bureau of Underground Storage Tank Regulations (BUSTR), also has a resource to help clean up abandoned gas and service stations throughout Ohio.

The Abandoned Gas Station Cleanup Grant provides funding to assess and clean up former gas and service stations with documented petroleum releases. Local government entities and land banks who own an eligible property or who have an agreement with the landowner may apply. The applicant and property owner cannot have contributed to the prior release of petroleum or other hazardous substances on the site.

The Ohio EPA’s Ohio Brownfields section administers two brownfield assistance programs –Targeted Brownfield Assessment and Technical Assistance. Both programs purpose is to assist local government entities with their goal of transforming blighted properties into economic and community assets. Capitalized by a grant from United States Environmental Protection Agenda (USEPA), the brownfield assistance programs target community driven projects in need of property assessment and technical assistance. Eligible applicants include local government entities such as counties, cities, villages, townships, port authorities and county land banks.

The Targeted Brownfield Assessment (TBA) program provides property assessment services at no cost to eligible applicants. SABR utilizes either in-house field staff or contractors to perform the requested assistance and the applicant receives a written report of the work performed.

Voluntary Action Program (VAP) grant funding is available to cover costs associated with VAP technical assistance (TA). In general, the volunteer determines the scope of a VAP TA review and what questions or issues are evaluated. Exceptions include EIP or MOA reviews as the scopes for these are set by Ohio EPA policy.

The USEPA has a number of resources and general information about brownfields available on their website.