Dakota County received grants from the Environmental Protection Agency to conduct environmental site assessments on brownfield sites for facilitating redevelopment of those sites by limiting upfront costs for local governments or developers.
A brownfield is defined as property where expansion, redevelopment or reuse may be complicated by the presence or potential presence of a hazardous substance, pollutant or contaminant.
Hazardous substances and/or petroleum have been used or stored at many commercial and industrial properties. Therefore, many properties can meet the Environmental Protection Agency definition for a brownfield when they are being targeted for redevelopment. Similarly, nearly all buildings constructed prior to 1980 may have asbestos containing building materials, lead-based paint, and/or other hazardous building materials, which can require inspection and sampling for these materials as part of any redevelopment.
Submit site nominations
Dakota County is seeking potential brownfield sites that meet the following criteria:
- A city or economic development agency is interested in acquiring a property for future city use or redevelopment but is short of funding to perform the necessary environmental due diligence activities.
- A city or economic development agency acquired a property that was partially investigated but would benefit from additional assessment that would complete the definition of the nature and extent of contamination, enable environmental cleanup cost to be estimated, and remove uncertainty that may be hampering development.
- The site is of current or recent interest to a developer, for which the availability of funding for environmental assessment costs would enhance the likelihood of the developer moving forward with potential redevelopment.
- Abandoned sites that are a significant blighting influence, a potential threat to public welfare or the environment.
- There is real or perceived contamination on vacant, abandoned, or underutilized property.
- If contamination is known to be present, the funding cannot be used to relieve the responsible party of the costs for investigating something for which they have a legal obligation.
Completed 
Site Nomination Form should be submitted to Cathy Undem at cathy.undem@co.dakota.mn.us.