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Brownfields Supplemental Assistance Fact Sheet

City of Shreveport, LA
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

Shreveport, Louisiana Date of Announcement:
March 2000

Amount: $150,000
Greenspace: $50,000

Target Area: City of Shreveport, LA

Profile: The Pilot targets two brownfields in the Biomedical Research Foundation InterTech area, will identify other neighborhoods to target for redevelopment, and will help prepare the Cross Bayou area for reuse as greenspace.

BACKGROUND

EPA awarded the City of Shreveport supplemental assistance for its Brownfields Assessment Demonstration Pilot and additional funding for assessments at brownfield properties to be used for greenspace purposes. Shreveport (population 198,525) is the state's third largest city and is located at the crossroads of major rail and highway systems that transport large volumes of hazardous materials. During the regional decline of the oil industry in the 1980s, Shreveport lost 10,000 jobs, many of them located in the older inner-city industrial area. The inner city contained hundreds of acres of industrial sites that remained vacant due in part to the presence or threat of contamination. The urban core, designated a local Empowerment Zone, had an unemployment rate of 20 percent and a poverty rate of 40 percent in 1995-1996.

The supplemental assistance funds will be used to continue to prepare downtown brownfields sites for redevelopment-at the Biomedical Research Foundation InterTech Area and other neighborhoods to be targeted. In addition, the supplemental assistance will be used to prepare the Cross Bayou area for reuse as greenspace with trails and parks.

OBJECTIVES AND PLANNED ACTIVITIES

Shreveport's goal is to create healthy, safe, and sustainable communities through public-private partnerships and community participation in all brownfields cleanup and revitalization activities. The Biomedical Research Foundation InterTech area, a target for this supplemental assistance, is part of the city's revitalization strategy. Greenspace projects will complement the overall brownfields initiative and will primarily be targeted at the Cross Bayou Corridor, which was a core neighborhood targeted in the original Pilot.

To accomplish these objectives, the Pilot plans to:

. Perform Phase I and II environmental assessments on two properties in the InterTech area;

• Identify and conduct environmental assessments on other priority brownfields;

• Expand the Geographical Information System (GIS) database for a comprehensive inventory of brownfields across the city; and

• Perform Phase I and II environmental assessments on properties at the Cross Bayou area to prepare the site for reuse as greenspace with trails and parks.

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 Shreveport
Community Development
(318) 673-5900

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-00-047
April 2000
Outreach and Special Projects Staff (5101) Quick Reference Fact Sheet

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