Revitalizing the Chemical Valley
The Office of Environmental Remediation has been awarded a grant to pay for environmental property assessment at Brownfield sites in the Kanawha Valley. The purpose of the grant is to help Kanawha Valley communities to encourage the redevelopment of Brownfield properties in their communities that may need a helping hand. The center of the target funding area includes the towns of Nitro, St. Albans, Dunbar, South Charleston, Charleston, and Belle, as well as the unincorporated communities of Institute, Malden, Rand, and Dupont City. However, funding is available for communities anywhere along the Kanawha River from Gauley Bridge to Point Pleasant. During the 1960s when this part of WV was known as the Chemical Valley, it was home to more than 40 chemical manufacturing companies. But since that time this industry has suffered a 74% employment reduction, and as of 2010 only 10,000 Kanawha Valley residents were employed by a chemical company. These lost chemical industry jobs also resulted in an estimated 56,000 additional job losses from support businesses.
For more information about the grant, contact the OER at
DEPBrownfieldsAssessment@wv.gov.
Request an Environmental Assessment
To request environmental assessment services, please download and complete the following Environmental Assessment Request Form.