PILOT SNAPSHOT |
| Date of Award: September 1996
Amount: $200,000 |
Profile: The Pilot targets the 220-acre former
Alcoa Aluminum site that is located in a predominantly minority
community in the metro area.
|
BACKGROUND
EPA Region 5 selected the Metro-East St. Louis community governments for a
Regional Brownfields Pilot. The communities include Alorton, Centreville, and
East St. Louis, with a combined population of over 50,000. The region was an
industrial and transportation center that began to decline starting in the
1930's due to a number of factors, including high crime, low productivity, flood
plain constraints, poor public image, deterioration of industrial facilities,
and changes in waste disposal regulation. Intercommunity competition,
deterioration of the existing industrial infrastructure, and a long-term pattern
of neglect has constrained development in the area.
OBJECTIVES
East St. Louis has initiated reindustrialization of a former Alcoa Aluminum
site on 220 acres in a predominantly minority community in the metro area. The
focus of the East St. Louis Pilot is on developing a sustainable secondary
materials manufacturing district on the former Alcoa site. The site is in an
economically depressed area, which has a 90% minority population, a 24%
unemployment rate, and a loss of 10,000 jobs in the last three decades. The
Pilot will develop and test innovative remediation technologies for the clean-up
of the Alcoa site, recovering gypsum and red-clay tailings for reuse if
possible.
The East St. Louis Pilot, called the Metro East Initiative, will develop a
geographic information system (GIS) to locate other contaminated sites in the
area and assist in on-site remediation projects and in measuring environmental
and fiscal impacts of brownfields redevelopment. The EPA grant will be used for
an Advisory Committee, title searches and research, GIS creation, GIS analysis,
transaction screening of sites, and reports and presentations.
ACCOMPLISHMENTS AND ACTIVITIES
The Pilot is:
- Evaluating technical, legal, and financial risks associated with effective
reuse of the Alcoa Aluminum site;
- Implementing and adapting a GIS database to inventory brownfields in the
metro area;
- Developing a community neighborhood outreach program;
- Creating a market-based index of available, brownfields sites for
prospective employers; and
- Conducting a base-line analysis to determine availability of secondary
resource materials manufacturing in the metropolitan region.
LEVERAGING OTHER ACTIVITIES
Experience with the East St. Louis Pilot has been a catalyst for related
activities including the funding.
- East St. Louis is working with the Economic Development Administration
(EDA) about infrastructure grants for the redevelopment of the Alcoa Aluminum
site.
- East St. Louis continues to coordinate technical and financial resources
from EPA, EDA, and the Department of Housing and Urban Development to target
brownfields redevelopment in the metro area.
CONTACTS:
Michael Cordes
City of East St. Louis
(618) 482-6634
Keary Cragan
U.S. EPA - Region 5
(312) 353-5669
cragan.keary@epamail.epa.gov
Visit the EPA Brownfields web site at: http://www.epa.gov/brownfields/ |
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