The long-abandoned industrial brownfields in towns across Western Pennsylvania are a constant reminder of the steel industry that once dominated the region's economy.

The sites, big and small, have gone unused for years, mostly because of a lack of resources to clean them up, said Donald Welsh, administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency's mid-Atlantic region.

"Brownfield cleanup is one of our highest priorities as an agency right now, because it has an immediate social impact on the community," Mr. Welsh said yesterday, after presenting officials from four Western Pennsylvania counties with $1.75 million in grants to assess and clean up abandoned industrial and commercial sites.

Standing in the gravel-covered yard of Warehouse 39 at the McKees Rocks Industrial Enterprises, Mr. Welsh and Allegheny County Chief Executive Dan Onorato said that revitalized brownfields should be treated as the next frontier in the region's economic development.

"Over the past four years, one of my primary goals has been the reclamation and redevelopment of brownfields and old industrial sites in Allegheny County," Mr. Onorato said. Since 2004, he added, the county has invested more than $165 million in brownfield redevelopment projects.

In presenting checks to the Pittsburgh North Side Industrial Development Co., the Washington County Authority, Cambria County Redevelopment Authority, Johnstown Redevelopment Authority and Clearfield County Economic Development Corp., Mr. Welsh said the funds are essential for the region's economic recovery.

"Brownfield initiatives demonstrate how environmental protection and economic development work hand-in-hand," he said.

"This funding will put Western Pennsylvania communities on a path to reclaim properties that have been unused for years and turn those sites into assets for the community, the environment and the economy," he said.

In Allegheny County, Mr. Onorato said, his administration has identified more than 2,000 acres of brownfield property that stands to be reclaimed for commercial use.

Many brownfield sites, he added, are not only riverfront properties, but are in municipalities like McKees Rocks, which already have the infrastructure that new businesses need.

The entities getting the federal grants are among 209 nationwide that have been selected to receive more than $74 million in brownfield-related funding this year, according to EPA officials.