Brownfields Training, Research,
and Technical Assistance Grant
Fact Sheet

Northeast-Midwest Institute

EPA BROWNFIELDS PROGRAM

EPA's Brownfields Program empowers states, tribes, communities, and other stakeholders 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. EPA funds eligible applicants through assistance agreements to provide training, research, and technical assistance to facilitate brownfields revitalization.

ORGANIZATION DESCRIPTION

The Northeast-Midwest Institute (NEMW) is a Washington-based, private, non-profit, and non-partisan research organization dedicated to economic vitality, environmental quality, and regional equity for Northeast and Midwest states. Formed in the mid-1970s, it fulfills its mission by conducting research and analysis, developing and advancing innovative policy, providing evaluation of key federal programs, disseminating information, and highlighting sound economic and environmental technologies and practices. NEMW is unique among policy centers because of its ties to Congress through the NEMW Congressional and Senate Coalitions. The bipartisan coalitions advance federal policies that enhance the region's economy and environment.

NEMW has been at the forefront of brownfield policy development and information dissemination since the early 1990s, when NEMW organized the first brownfields conference in Chicago in 1991 and published the landmark New Life for Old Buildings. Regional and national interest in the implications of brownfields for urban redevelopment and environmental cleanup led NEMW to launch an ongoing research program to identify the impacts of federal and state policies and programs on community revitalization efforts and suggest opportunities for improvement.

BEST PRACTICES TOOLS AND TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE TO LOCAL DISADVANTAGED COMMUNITIES

Grantee
Northeast-Midwest Institute

Project Focus:
Technical Assistance for Disadvantaged Communities

Project Period:
October 2005 to September 2008

Project Description:
NEMW established a national consortium of urban and rural communities and other stakeholders using brownfields revitalization as a tool to renew distressed areas. The project involved organizing the Brownfields Disadvantaged Communities Network (with 400 members as of July 2007) and a Disadvantaged Communities Leadership Forum (20 members). To support this effort, NEMW hosts regular conference calls and web casts on a variety of brownfields issues to convene communities with leading experts and brownfields resources. NEMW is developing a technical assistance tool kit on the best practices for renewing disadvantaged communities. They continue ongoing brownfields technical assistance to disadvantaged communities, including the distribution of case studies, research reports, and brownfields information via the internet, web casts, and conference calls.

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: http://www.epa.gov/brownfields or call 202.566.2777.

For further information about NEMW's brownfields research, visit http://www.nemw.org/.

*The information on this fact sheet is subject to change.