Brownfields Assessment Pilot Fact Sheet

Bonne Terre, MO

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

Bonne Terre, Missouri

Date of Announcement: September 1996

Amount: $100,000

Profile: The Pilot targets a 122-acre area that lies near Superfund mine waste properties.

BACKGROUND

EPA selected the City of Bonne Terre for a Brownfields Pilot. Located on the northern edge of the Missouri Lead Belt, Bonne Terre (population 3,800) has suffered economically from the closure of mines more than 20 years ago. Mining waste has contaminated soil and surface water in some areas of the city. Bonne Terre residents and potential new businesses are concerned about potential human health and environmental risks, particularly from the fine lead tailings that are subject to dispersion by the wind.

TRAINING OBJECTIVES

Through its brownfields effort, Bonne Terre will characterize and address potential environmental risks and develop a 122-acre commercial/retail zone and industrial park on brownfields that lie near Superfund mine waste properties. The City Council has sanctioned a Bonne Terre Brownfields Committee, which includes a representative of the City Council, the City Manager, the Assistant to the City Manager, a liaison from Doe Run (the sole solvent potentially responsible party), and a representative of Mineral Area Community College, to carry out the regional brownfields project. This brownfields project is expected to restore otherwise underdeveloped land within the city limits into productive use and create a model plan that will help neighboring municipalities facing similar challenges. The Pilot targets an underdeveloped area immediately adjacent to, and perceived to be adversely affected by, the mine waste properties being addressed by EPA Region 7 Superfund program. These properties are not to be addressed under the Superfund investigation and are the city's focus for a new industrial park.

ACCOMPLISHMENTS AND ACTIVITIES

The Pilot has:

• Created an Industrial Development Authority (IDA) in January 1997 to acquire the targeted brownfields properties for cleanup and redevelopment;

• Participated in five Bonne Terre Brownfields Committee public meetings, which provided opportunities to answer stakeholder questions regarding the Pilot program;

• Prepared a redevelopment plan that outlines the beneficial land uses for brownfields properties while meeting the needs of the community;

• Established a web site that focused on brownfields redevelopment and displays zone information and state and federal tax initiatives; and

• Transferred the entire redevelopment area from private ownership to IDA.

LEVERAGING OTHER ACTIVITIES

Experience with the Bonne Terre Pilot has been a catalyst for related activities, including the following:

• The Pilot met with both the Missouri Department of Natural Resources and the Missouri Department of Economic Development to discuss how the targeted properties that successfully complete the state's voluntary cleanup program may be eligible for a variety of state financial incentives for both the party conducting the cleanup and future businesses located on these properties.

• Using leveraged funds, the Pilot assessed the four targeted properties as part of the EPA/Doe Run Lead Company lead chat piles investigation.

• Cleanup activities are completed at three sites (MARMC, Bonne Terre Texaco, and former lead smelter site).

• A total of 20 cleanup jobs were created at the MARMC and Bonne Terre Texaco sites.

• The Pilot and Mineral Area Community College worked together to conduct public participation activities, including brownfields briefings for the Brownfields Committee and City Council, several one-on-one sessions with potentially affected landowners, public availability sessions for interested community members, and brownfields presentations to community groups and other interested parties.

CONTACTS

City of Bonne Terre
(573) 358-2254 or 4000

U.S. EPA - Region 7
(913) 551-7788

Visit the EPA Region 7 Brownfields web site at: http://www.epa.gov/region7/cleanup/brownfields/index.htm

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 (5105)

EPA 500-F-00-268
December 2000

Outreach and Special Projects Staff (5105)

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