Brownfields 2005 Grant Fact Sheet

Atlanta, GA

EPA BROWNFIELDS PROGRAM

EPA's Brownfields Program empowers states, communities, and other stakeholders in economic development to work together to prevent, assess, safely clean up, and sustainably reuse brownfields. A brownfield site is real property, the expansion, redevelopment, or reuse of which may be complicated by the presence or potential presence of a hazardous substance, pollutant, or contaminant. On January 11, 2002, President George W. Bush signed into law the Small Business Liability Relief and Brownfields Revitalization Act. Under the Brownfields Law, EPA provides financial assistance to eligible applicants through four competitive grant programs: assessment grants, revolving loan fund grants, cleanup grants, and job training grants. Additionally, funding support is provided to state and tribal response programs through a separate mechanism.

ASSESSMENT GRANTS

$200,000 for hazardous substances
$200,000 for petroleum
EPA has selected the City of Atlanta for two brownfields assessment grants. Hazardous substances grant funds will be used to create a master plan for brownfields assessment, conduct community outreach, perform Phase I and II site assessments, develop cleanup plans, and link all information into a geographic information system database for sites in three areas of Atlanta where redevelopment may have the greatest chance of success. Petroleum funds will be used to perform these tasks for properties suspected of having, or with confirmed, leaking underground storage tanks.

COMMUNITY DESCRIPTION

The City of Atlanta was selected to receive two brownfields assessment grants. Atlanta is a federally designated Renewal Community (RC) with a population of 434,000, and one of the fastest-growing metropolitan areas in the United States. It is estimated that by 2030, metropolitan Atlanta's population will grow by 2.3 million people. Atlanta also has over 950 brownfields sites within its boundaries, and will focus on three areas for assessment: the RC and Belt Line Project areas, and neighborhoods that have developed master plans. The RC area is a distressed community with a poverty rate of almost 38 percent and an unemployment rate of over 14 percent. Eighty-nine percent of residents in the RC are African-American. The Belt Line is a 22-mile greenway circling downtown and midtown Atlanta. The Belt Line Project will allow for the use of existing railroad rights-of-way to connect over 40 economically, racially, and culturally diverse neighborhoods and the downtown district. The project will generate new commercial and mixed-use residential housing to help accommodate growth in the city, and create new greenspace. Redevelopment of brownfields throughout the city will help increase the tax base, create thousands of new jobs, bring new housing to the city, and stimulate public and private investment.

CONTACTS

For further information, including specific grant contacts, additional grant information, brownfields news and events, and publications and links, visit the EPA Brownfields web site at: www.epa.gov/brownfields.

EPA Region 4 Brownfields Team
404-562-8684
http://www.epa.gov/region4/waste/bf/index.htm

Grant Recipient: City of Atlanta, GA
404-330-6724

The cooperative agreement for this grant has not yet been negotiated; therefore, activities described in this fact sheet are subject to change.