STEUBENVILLE — The Brooke-Hancock Region IX Regional Planning and Development Council has been awarded a 2017 U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Brownfields Coalition Assessment Grant.

The $1.2 million award will be applicable to projects in Hancock Brooke, and Jefferson counties, with specific projects eyed in Mingo Junction, Weirton, and the area of Power, W.Va. in Brooke County.

Funds can be used to assist in environmental assessment and eventual repurposing of potentially contaminated properties within the counties.

“These grants will empower our communities to transform idle, languishing lands into vibrant hubs for business, jobs, and recreation,” said BH Executive Director Michael Paprocki. “It’s all about providing that initial funding, and sparking that first conversation to set stalled sites on a path toward smart, safe redevelopment that directly benefits our communities.”

Since 2015, the BHJ Brownfields Coalition has inventoried more than 67 sites including the 2,000-acres of properties that once housed the former the Weirton Steel Corp. in Weirton and Wheeling-Pittsburgh Steel Corp. in Steubenville and Mingo Junction.

Four previous coalition grants, worth a total of $2.4 million, has allowed for cooperative working relationships with Jefferson County’s Land Reutilization Corporation, the Frontier Group of Companies, Ohio’s Department of Development, and West Virginia’s Department of Economic Development.

This relationship has leveraged more than $1.3 billion in public and private funds.