[ADEQ Media] ADEQ Director Owens Announces $50, 000 Grant to Wickenburg for Assessment of Brownfields Site

[media@lists.azdeq.gov]

ADEQ Director Owens Announces $50,000 Grant to Wickenburg for Assessment
of Brownfields Site

PHOENIX (April 26, 2007) - Arizona Department of Environmental Quality
(ADEQ) Director Steve Owens today announced that ADEQ is awarding a
$50,000 Brownfields grant to the City of Wickenburg in Maricopa County
to help redevelop a 44-acre former municipal solid waste landfill site.

The city-owned site is located at the northwest quarter of Section 8 of
Township 7 North, Range 5 West of the Gila and Salt River Base and
Meridian in Wickenburg, Arizona. Closed in 1998, it was used for
disposal of municipal solid waste. Since the closing, the site has been
used to store construction materials, for the temporary storage of large
home appliances for recycling, and for green plant materials that are
shredded for landfill cover.

The ADEQ grant is for a modified Phase II Environmental Site Assessment,
which will allow Wickenburg to weigh options for how to use the site.
Possible uses include a firefighter training area, a business or desert
park, or expanding the adjacent airport facilities.

"This landfill has been a blight to the City for some time," Owens said.
"We are pleased to support Wickenburg's efforts to put this property
back into productive economic use for the community. Our Brownfields
program reduces environmental hazards and makes it possible to put these
properties to work once again."

A Brownfields site is an abandoned or under-used property with an active
redevelopment potential that suffers from known or perceived
environmental contamination.

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News media interested in additional information on this or any other
topic concerning the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality should
contact the Office of Communications at (602) 771-2215 or via email at
communications@azdeq.gov.