New Jersey DEP Will Provide Green Job Training Through EPA Brownfields Grant (NJ)
(New York, N.Y.) The U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency has awarded the New Jersey Department of
Environmental Protection a $300,000 workforce development and job
training grant to help fund DEP’s program to recruit, train
and place residents of the City of Camden in green jobs assessing
and cleaning up brownfields and other contaminated sites.
Brownfields are properties at which moderate contamination can
interfere with redevelopment. Walter Mugdan, Emergency Response and
Remediation Director of EPA Region 2 joined officials from DEP and
the New Jersey State Employment and Training Commission to announce
the grant at the former Knox Gelatin site on Erie street in Camden.
Former students demonstrated the jobs skills acquired through a
similar job training program.
“EPA’s green jobs program is helping
people acquire in-demand job skills,” said Walter Mugdan.
“In addition to creating a better trained green workforce,
this grant will help create cleaner, healthier communities. The
training that the Department of Environmental Protection is
providing will lead to living wage jobs and a better
environment.”
DEP will train 72 students, using trainers from
Camden County College. The core training program will consist of
three 176-hour cycles, with an additional 18 to 24 hours of
supplemental coursework. Courses will include underground storage
tank leak awareness, solar panel installation, mold and mildew
remediation, and waste management and cleanup awareness. The
Department of Environmental Protection will work with local
community organizations and its community employer partners to
place graduates in environmental jobs, and will track graduates for
one year following the completion of training. Both the Camden
Redevelopment Agency and the Salvation Army have committed to
require the hiring of local certified environmental professionals
in all their contracts that require environmental
work.
The Small Business Liability Relief and
Brownfields Revitalization Act was passed in 2002, establishing a
Brownfields Program that provides funding for brownfields
assessments, cleanups, revolving loans and green job training. The
program encourages redevelopment of America’s estimated
450,000 abandoned and contaminated sites and promotes job
creation.
Additional information on EPA Region 2
Brownfields activities is available at https://www.epa.gov/brownfields
Follow EPA Region 2 on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/eparegion2 and visit our Facebook page, www.facebook.com/eparegion2.
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