Brownfields Cleanup Revolving
Loan Fund Pilot Fact Sheet

Essex County Improvement Authority, NJ

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
Duquesne, PA	Date of Announcement: April 2001 Amount: $1.0 million
BCRLF Target Area: Sites located throughout the county

BACKGROUND

EPA selected the Essex County Improvement Authority (ECIA) as a brownfields pilot site. Essex County is the second most densely populated of New Jersey's 21 counties, representing 10% of the State's population. Historically, the County developed as an industrial hub because of its advantageous location on Newark Bay and the Passaic River. As a result of social and economic trends over the past several decades, employers migrated to other areas, leaving behind underutilized and abandoned properties and economically depressed cities. Essex County has the highest number of brownfields sites of any county in the State (150 brownfields sites). Poverty rates reach over 14%, with unemployment in 1998 at 5.6%. The local government's recent efforts to rebuild the local economy, expand the job base, redevelop the cities, and improve and protect the environment, have helped to restore public confidence.

BCRLF OBJECTIVES

The BCRLF will enable the ECIA to protect the health, safety, and welfare of Essex County and New Jersey residents by offering loans to developers for cleanup of contaminated sites. Through the BCRLF program, the County will continue its efforts in redevelopment, and in improving and protecting the environment. The BCRLF will be used to fund at least three separate projects: (1) the proposed redevelopment of a 200-acre site in Irvington into an Internet technology campus, hotel, and office complex, (2) a proposed mixed-use development and preservation of a 240-acre reservation that is located on a 600+ acre, suburban tract of publicly owned property, and (3) the cleanup of three sites to be selected in the County's Assessment Demonstration Pilot inventory of brownfields sites.

FUND STRUCTURE AND OPERATIONS

The ECIA will serve as the lead agency. ECIA will procure the services of a fund manager and a part-time brownfields site manager. The process for identifying and selecting potential BCRLF borrowers will be based on the ability to repay, financial stability, and financial management capabilities.

LEVERAGING OTHER RESOURCES

The New Jersey Commerce and Economic Growth Commission has designated Irvington, East Orange, and Orange as Urban Enterprise Zones. All municipalities are eligible for funding from the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection's Hazardous Discharge Site Remediation Fund for further environmental and remedial investigations at qualified sites. The ECIA's in-kind contribution covers a portion of the salary of the ECIA program administrator, who will administer the BCRLF in conjunction with a retained fund manager.

Use of BCRLF Pilot funds must be in accordance with CERCLA, and all CERCLA restrictions on use of funding also apply to BCRLF funds.

CONTACTS

Essex County Improvement Authority
(973) 575-0952

Region 2 Brownfields Coordinator
(212) 637-4314

Visit the EPA Region 2 Brownfields web site at:
http://www.epa.gov/region02/superfund/brownfields/

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-01-231
April 2001

Outreach and Special Projects Staff (5105)

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Brownfields Cleanup Revolving Loan Fund Pilot Fact Sheet