Brownfields Job Training and Development
Demonstration Pilot Fact Sheet

Universidad Metropolitana, Puerto Rico

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

Date of Announcement:
May 1999

Amount: $199,672

Profile: The Pilot will train 30 participants in a Professional Certificate Program for Environmental Technicians, including the use of innovative assessment and cleanup technologies. Students will be recruited from the distressed Península de Cantera community of San Juan.

BACKGROUND

EPA has selected the Universidad Metropolitana (UMET) for a Brownfields Job Training and Development Demonstration Pilot. UMET's Brownfields Assessment Pilot partner is the Puerto Rico Industrial Development Company (PRIDCO). The Job Training Pilot targets a 300-acre, densely populated community in downtown San Juan, Puerto Rico, known as Península de Cantera (population 11,500). Residents in this Hispanic community suffer from an 82 percent poverty rate and a 35 percent unemployment rate among adults participating in the labor force. Less than one-quarter of the residents have finished high school.

The Brownfields Assessment Pilot centers on a former electroplating site in Península de Cantera, which will serve as a model for a broader brownfields redevelopment program in San Juan. The electroplating site has been vacant since 1985 because PRIDCO has been unable to overcome the stigma of potential contamination. The community is currently working with PRIDCO on plans to convert the site into a recycling facility. Puerto Rico's intergovernmental efforts to establish a brownfields redevelopment program and the extreme economic distress of Península de Cantera indicate a need for environmental training.

TRAINING OBJECTIVES

UMET plans to train 30 students with the EPA grant, achieve an 80 percent placement rate, and track students for one year. Participants will be recruited from the distressed Península de Cantera community. The Pilot training will consist of a 36 credit-hour Professional Certificate Program for Environmental Technicians, including the use of innovative assessment and cleanup technologies.

The training efforts of UMET will be supported by organizations such as PRIDCO, the Northeast Hazardous Substance Research Center, the Environmental Quality Board, Caribe Environmental Services, In-Site Environmental, U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, and the Residents Council of Peninsula de Cantera. UMET will establish an Advisory Committee with representation from these partners and other local community-based organizations.

ACTIVITIES

Activities planned as part of this Pilot include:

Conducting outreach to recruit disadvantaged residents of Península de Cantera;
Conducting environmental technician training, including courses in the use of innovative assessment and cleanup technologies; and
Supporting career placement of students for at least one year after the job training is completed.

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

CONTACTS

Universidad Metropolitana
(787) 766-1717

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 grant contacts, additional grant information, brownfields news and events, and publications and links, visit the EPA Brownfields web site.

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

Solid Waste
and Emergency
Response (5101)

EPA 500-F-99-103
May 1999

Outreach and Special Projects Staff (5101)

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