City of Waterloo Selects HR Green to Oversee Cleanup of Meatpacking Site
The City of Waterloo, Iowa, has selected HR Green to oversee the cleanup of the seven-story former Rath Meatpacking Plant site. The looming brownfields facility symbolizes the economic devastation that dramatically impacted the community during the 1980s farm crisis.
HR Green’s team successfully wrote the $642,400 U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Brownfields Cleanup Grant that is funding the project. This federal money will cover costs associated with developing bid specifications and overseeing the removal of asbestos-containing materials throughout the building. Once abated, the City plans to demolish the structure allowing for its redevelopment. Planned uses will complement the adjoining cold storage warehousing.
As the City’s preferred environmental consultant, HR Green has secured 17 individual EPA Brownfields grants totaling $3.59 million on behalf of Waterloo over the past 25 years. These efforts assisted in transitioning numerous blighted properties plagued by contamination into assets that expanded the local tax base, created jobs, stabilized declining neighborhoods, and protected human health and the environment. Examples include the former Wonder Bread factory (Single Speed Brewing), former Grand Hotel (Grand Crossings condominiums), former Construction Machinery Company (Public Works building), Standard Forwarding and Rath buildings (Human Services Campus), and downtown flood-damaged properties (Cedar Valley Sportsplex).
HR Green helps communities compete for assessment, cleanup, and multi-purpose grants to return these properties to productive reuse. Since the initiative began, HR Green has helped various communities nationwide secure over $16 million in grants. This includes a 100% success rate since the Federal Fiscal Year (FFY) 2019.
Connect with Rose Amundson or Steve Prideaux to discuss how our environmental specialists can help your community with your brownfields projects.
