Brownfields Assessment Pilot Fact Sheet

Albany County, NY

EPA's Brownfields Economic Redevelopment Initiative is designed to empower states, communities, and other stakeholders in economic redevelopment to work together in a timely manner to prevent, assess, safely clean up, and sustainably reuse brownfields. A brownfield is a site, or portion thereof, that has actual or perceived contamination and an active potential for redevelopment or reuse. EPA is funding: assessment demonstration pilot programs (each funded up to $200,000 over two years), to assess brownfields sites and to test cleanup and redevelopment models; job training pilot programs (each funded up to $200,000 over two years), to provide training for residents of communities affected by brownfields to facilitate cleanup of brownfields sites and prepare trainees for future employment in the environmental field; and, cleanup revolving loan fund programs (each funded up to $500,000 over five years) to capitalize loan funds to make loans for the environmental cleanup of brownfields. These pilot programs are intended to provide EPA, states, tribes, municipalities, and communities with useful information and strategies as they continue to seek new methods to promote a unified approach to site assessment, environmental cleanup, and redevelopment.

PILOT SNAPSHOT

Albany County, NY

Date of Announcement:
April 2001

Amount: $200,000

Profile: The Pilot targets three municipalities within the poorest areas of Albany County, all of which are within state designated Empire Zones.

BACKGROUND

EPA has selected Albany County for a Brownfields Assessment Pilot. The county, which is located along the banks of the Mohawk and Hudson Rivers (a designated American Heritage River), has a population of 292,793 and is home to many longstanding manufacturing, industrial, and commercial activities. These activities have resulted in a large number of potentially contaminated sites spread across the county. Many of these sites are located in prime locations on the rivers and close to transportation facilities, and many are located in NY State designated Empire Zones, which offers incentives targeting job creation and new investment.

Albany County will focus on three municipalities for this Pilot: the Village of Green Island; the Town of Colonie; and the City of Cohoes. All three are in a state Empire Zone. These municipalities include traditional commercial and industrial centers that have been underused or abandoned. They represent some of the most needy areas of the county. The poverty rate in these three areas (total population 95,812) is as high as 13 percent, and the unemployment rate ranges up to 9 percent. Most of the 475 acres of land proposed for the project are known orsuspected to have environmental contamination issues. Because of these issues and related liabilities, the Empire Zone Program has been insufficient to entice business investment in these areas.

OBJECTIVES

The county’s objectives are to remove much of the uncertainty surrounding liability for cleanup at several sites in the Empire Zone, develop a mechanism for environmental cleanup, and prepare the sites for redevelopment and reuse. As part of this objective, the Pilot will fund community outreach, site identification, Phase I and Phase II environmental site assessments, and cleanup planning.

ACCOMPLISHMENTS AND ACTIVITIES

Activities planned as part of this Pilot include:

Developing a master list of potential brownfields sites within the Empire Zone;
Establishing a Brownfields Task Force to ensure community outreach and participation in the Pilot redevelopment process;
Performing six to ten Phase I environmental site assessments at sites within the Pilot area; and
Selecting one or two sites from the Phase I site assessment pool for Phase II site assessments.

CONTACTS

Albany County Dept. of Economic Development, Conservation and Planning
(518) 447-7040

Regional Brownfields Team
U.S. EPA - Region 2
(212) 637-4314

Visit the EPA Region 2 Brownfields web site at:
http://www.epa.gov/region02/superfund/brownfields/

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

United States
Environmental
Protection Agency
Washington, D.C. 20460

Solid Waste
and Emergency
Response (5101)

EPA 500-F-01-279
April 2001

Outreach and Special Projects Staff (5105)

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