Brownfields Assessment Pilot Fact Sheet

Sioux City, IA

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 the 215-acre Sioux City stockyards near the confluence of the Floyd and Missouri Rivers.

BACKGROUND

EPA has selected Sioux City for a Brownfields Pilot. Sioux City (population 80,505) has historically been a commercial center of the upper Missouri River. Much of the commerce was related to the processing and distribution of livestock in the Sioux City stockyards area located at the confluence of the Missouri and Floyd Rivers. The Pilot is targeting this 215-acre tract of land that is designated by the city as an urban renewal area and is within the state's certified Enterprise Zone (EZ) and the Floyd Valley tax increment financing district.

In the 1920s, the stockyards and related businesses employed thousands. Beginning in the 1950s, however, a changing livestock industry and labor unrest resulted in a two-decade decline for the stockyards. Today, only a few packing plants remain in business while others have been abandoned, leaving large brownfields such as former packing plants and livestock holding facilities. Those employed by the remaining stockyards, almost 70 percent minority, have an average salary far below the statewide average.

OBJECTIVES

By conducting environmental assessments, the Pilot plans to help reduce potential environmental risks, create new jobs, and increase the average wages through cleanup and redevelopment of the Sioux City stockyards. Consistent with the Floyd Valley redevelopment plan, proposed reuses of the targeted site include agribusiness, light manufacturing, high technology, and warehouse and transportation facilities. The Pilot will work within the city's holistic and collaborative strategy for revitalizing the community.

ACCOMPLISHMENTS AND ACTIVITIES

Activities planned as part of this Pilot include:

• Identifying brownfields within the targeted area;

• Performing Phase I and Phase II environmental assessments on priority sites in the target area;

• Designing cleanup plans for assessed sites; and

• Conducting public outreach and community involvement activities.

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 Sioux City
Community and Economic Development Division
(712) 279-6345

Regional Brownfields Team
U.S. EPA - Region 7
(913) 551-7786

Visit the EPA Region 7 Brownfields web site at: http://www.epa.gov/region7/cleanup/brownfields/index.htm

Visit the EPA Brownfields Website at:
http://www.epa.gov/brownfields

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

Solid Waste
and Emergency
Response (5101)

EPA 500-F-99-153
June 1999

Outreach and Special Projects Staff (5101)

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