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Brownfields Assessment Pilot Fact Sheet


 City of San Antonio, TX
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: June 1999

Amount: $200,000

Profile: The Pilot targets San Antonio's inner city Loop 410 area, an ethnically diverse and economically distressed area.

BACKGROUND

EPA has selected the City of San Antonio for a Brownfields Pilot. San Antonio is the eighth-largest city in the nation and has the second-highest poverty rate at 22.6 percent. The city is ethnically diverse, with a 55.6 percent Hispanic population. The inner city Pilot target area suffers from a 38 percent poverty rate, a high illiteracy rate (24 percent of adults), and a 17 percent unemployment rate. The project area, Loop 410, is a part of the U.S. Housing and Urban Development-designated Enterprise Community (EC), and contains three state-designated Enterprise Zones.

The Pilot project area is characterized by poor planning that has allowed incompatible heavy industrial operations to develop and operate in residential neighborhoods. For decades, industrial manufacturers were located in the inner city adjacent to or in low-income residential neighborhoods. As these manufacturers left the inner city, San Antonio was faced with the loss of employment for many low- to moderate-income earning families. In addition, these vacated properties raise issues of environmental justice and environmental protection for the inner city residents.

OBJECTIVES

The city's objective is to revitalize the inner city neighborhoods through comprehensive city-wide planning and economic development initiatives. As part of this strategy, the Pilot will foster brownfields redevelopment by promoting partnerships, facilitating public involvement, and coordinating environmental cleanup and economic development activities. The cleanup and redevelopment of the targeted properties will mitigate environmental concerns and address economic issues by creating new job opportunities, increasing tax values, and introducing new business sectors.

ACCOMPLISHMENTS AND ACTIVITIES

Activities planned as part of this Pilot include:

• Conducting at least six environmental assessments within the targeted Loop 410 area;

• Preparing reuse plans for the assessed sites; and

• Holding an environmental justice forum that will provide community input regarding cleanup and redevelopment projects.

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

CONTACTS

City of San Antonio
Economic Development Department
(210) 207-3917

Regional Brownfields Team
U.S. EPA - Region 6
(214) 665-6736

Visit the EPA Region 6 Brownfields web site at: http://www.epa.gov/earth1r6/6sf/bfpages/sfbfhome.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 (5101)		 EPA 500-F-99-150
June 1999
Outreach and Special Projects Staff (5101) Quick Reference Fact Sheet

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