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Brownfields Supplemental Assistance Fact Sheet

City of Portland, ME
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
Portland, ME

Date of Announcement:
April 2001

Amount: $135,000
Greenspace: $50,000

Target Area: City of Portland, ME

Profile: The Pilot targets the Bayside area, plagued by underused and contaminated industrial sites, for assessment, cleanup, and redevelopment.

BACKGROUND

EPA has selected the City of Portland to receive supplemental assistance for its Brownfields Assessment Demonstration Pilot. The target area has been expanded to include the Bayside area, including parcels within the original project area (Marginal Way) that did not receive a site assessment and new parcels contiguous to the original project area.

The Bayside area is the most visible gateway to the city. Once an important engine of the city's economic vitality, the Bayside area is now plagued with underutilized industrial sites with historical contamination. The area encompasses a former scrap metal yard, rail yard repair facility, foundry, and automotive repair site and is surrounded by Portland's three most densely populated and poorest neighborhoods. Uncertainty surrounding environmental liability has redirected prospective users, lenders, and developers away from these sites toward rural areas with no industrial history, and, therefore, no perceived environmental risks. The decline of the Bayside area has increased unemployment and caused the loss of local property tax revenues.

The Pilot will use EPA's supplemental assistance grant to expand the successes of the Assessment Pilot by conducting site assessment and cleanup and reuse planning activities for the additional sites in the Bayside area of Portland. Adopted as city policy and funded by the Assessment Pilot, the comprehensive cleanup and redevelopment strategy entitled "A New Vision for Bayside" will be used as a blueprint for Pilot revitalization activities.

ACCOMPLISHMENTS AND ACTIVITIES

Activities planned as part of this Pilot include:

  • Conduct site assessments at targeted properties within the Bayside area;
  • Review appropriate land uses and redevelopment strategies;
  • Develop cleanup strategies that address contamination issues in conjunction with anticipated uses and redevelopment strategies; and
  • Conduct community outreach regarding the targeted area.

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 Portland, Planning and Urban Development
(207) 874-8725

Regional Brownfields Team
U.S. EPA - Region 1
(617) 918-1338

Visit the EPA Region 1 Brownfields web site at:
http://www.epa.gov/Region1/brownfields/index.html

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-01-294
April 2001
Outreach and Special Projects Staff (5101) Quick Reference Fact Sheet

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