Brownfields Assessment Pilot Fact Sheet

Laurinburg, NC

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, and safely clean up brownfields to promote their sustainable reuse. Brownfields are abandoned, idled, or under-used industrial and commercial facilities where expansion or redevelopment is complicated by real or perceived environmental contamination. EPA is funding: assessment demonstration pilot programs (each funded up to $200,000 over two years, with additional funding provided for greenspace), to test assessment models and facilitate coordinated assessment and cleanup efforts at the federal, state, tribal, and local levels; and 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 program (each funded up to $1,000,000 over five years) to provide financial assistance 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

Date of Announcement: May 2000

Amount: $200,000

Greenspace: $50,000

Profile: The City of Laurinburg will conduct site assessments and prepare redevelopment plans for a variety of properties with suspected contamination. The city will use greenspace funding to plan the development of recreational and park space at the Scotland Memorial Hospital site and/or the Main Street site.

BACKGROUND

EPA has selected the City of Laurinburg for a Brownfields Pilot. Laurinburg was also selected to receive additional funding for assessments at brownfields properties to be used for greenspace purposes. The City of Laurinburg (population 15,681) has an unemployment rate of 5.4 percent, with 30 percent of residents living below the poverty line. The Carolina Central Railroad arrived in Laurinburg in the 1860s, fostering a brief period of rapid growth for the town. The textiles industry arrived in the area in the 1870s and remains a major employer to this day.

Laurinburg experienced a 20-year period of economic growth and expansion between the 1960s and the 1980s. This expansion was the result of a national trend, as industries moved into the union free and relatively inexpensive southern "sun belt" from the northern "rust belt." The expansion ended, and in the 1990s, it reversed as industries moved elsewhere in search of less-expensive labor. In the past 2 ½ years, the community has lost at least 765 jobs and $8.6 million dollars (to lost payroll). In addition, the Scotland Memorial Hospital, sold to a developer 15 years ago, remains vacant. Because it is near a residential neighborhood and in front of an elementary school, the community has set a goal to redevelop the site.

OBJECTIVES

The Pilot intends to assess former industrial sites for potential contamination and formulate redevelopment plans. Using greenspace funding, a plan also will be developed to turn the Scotland Memorial Hospital site into a park. The City of Laurinburg plans to either target sites for industrial redevelopment or to convert them into greenspace.

ACCOMPLISHMENTS AND ACTIVITIES

Activities planned as part of this Pilot include:

Involving the entire community in decision making;
Developing an inventory of available brownfield sites;
Establishing economic development and community priorities;
Conducting Phase I and/or Phase II environmental site assessments on targeted sites;
Developing integrated redevelopment plans for assessed sites; and
Developing plans for redeveloping the Scotland Memorial Hospital sites and/or Main Street site into recreation and park space.

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

CONTACTS

City Manager
City of Laurinburg
(919) 276-8324

Regional Brownfields Team
U.S. EPA - Region 4
(404) 562-8661

Visit the EPA Region 4 Brownfields web site at:
http://www.epa.gov/region4/waste/bf/

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-00-105
May 2000

Outreach and Special Projects Staff (5105)

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