EPA awards $2 Million for Cleanup of Former NWGa Regional Hospital Site

A $2 million grant has been awarded for environmental cleanup work at the former Northwest Georgia Regional Hospital site, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced on Monday.

The Rome-Floyd County Development Authority is the recipient of the grant, which comes from the federal Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. The authority received a $500,000 award last year to start assessing the hazardous materials that remain on the site, which is now called the Battey Business Complex.

Plans are to raze most of the buildings and offer the land for economic development projects.

“The 110-acre cleanup site was part of a 132.5-acre former hospital campus that has been in decline for several decades and vacant since 2011. The campus includes 57 vacant structures in various stages of deterioration with several buildings contaminated with metals and inorganic contaminants,” the EPA announcement notes. “Grant funds also will be used for community engagement activities.”

The development authority purchased the complex from the state with $2.25 million approved by voters in the 2013 and 2017 SPLOST packages. The Rome City Commission rezoned the site for heavy industrial use last May.

The Brownfields Multipurpose, Assessment, and Cleanup Grant Program is aimed at helping to transform once-polluted, vacant and abandoned properties into community assets.

The Rome award is part of a $231 million allocation announced for 178 communities across the country. In Georgia, the Middle Georgia Regional Commission got $1.5 million for assessments at smaller sites around Macon and Milledgeville, and Columbus received $1 million to develop an inventory of brownfield sites and plans for reuse.

“Far too many communities across America have suffered the harmful economic and health consequences of living near polluted brownfield sites,” said President Joe Biden in the release. “I’ve long believed that people who’ve borne the burden of pollution should be the first to see the benefits of new investment.”

EPA Administrator Michael S. Regan was scheduled to announce the awards Monday at a brownfields site in Philadelphia.