Brownfields Assessment Pilot Fact Sheet

Watertown, NY

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

Watertown, NY

Date of Announcement:
June 1999

Amount: $200,000

Profile: The Pilot targets the Black-Clawson site, a former foundry located on an island in the Black River.

BACKGROUND

EPA has selected the City of Watertown for a Brownfields Pilot. Watertown (population 30,000) is located in upstate New York approximately 70 miles from Syracuse, and is the only city in Jefferson County. The city is situated on the Black River near the juncture between Lake Ontario and the St. Lawrence River, and is the gateway to several recreational areas. Historically home to paper mills and food processing facilities, during the past 40 years business closings and downsizing have resulted in a loss of jobs that left the county with an unemployment rate 1.2 times the national average, as well as a 12 percent population decline. These facility closings have also left a number of brownfields within the city, all of which are located within economically depressed neighborhoods.

The Pilot targets the Black-Clawson site, an abandoned foundry facility on an island in the Black River that serves as a gateway to the city's commercial center. The site is located in one of the city's most distressed areas, which has a 40 percent poverty rate.

OBJECTIVES

The Pilot has two primary objectives. First, the Pilot will assess the targeted site to address perceived environmental barriers to the commercial and recreational redevelopment of the site, allowing the city to link the island with the downtown commercial center. Second, the Pilot will use the site assessment to help create sustainable policies, procedures, and infrastructure for other brownfields cleanup and redevelopment within the community. By developing a brownfields redevelopment process, the city hopes to reuse other underused or abandoned sites to reverse urban blight and reduce development of agricultural land outside the city. Watertown will use an expert task force as well as significant community interaction to define this process throughout and beyond the term of the Pilot.

ACCOMPLISHMENTS AND ACTIVITIES

Activities planned as part of this Pilot include:

• Compiling an inventory of brownfields within the city;

• Conducting Phase I and Phase II environmental assessments of the Black-Clawson site;

• Developing a cleanup plan for the targeted site;

• Designing a brownfields redevelopment guide to serve as an example for future redevelopment projects; and

• Convening a community advisory group of local residents, developers, community organization representatives, and other stakeholders to participate in the Pilot's processes.

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 Watertown
Jefferson County Job Development Corporation
(315) 782-5865

Regional Brownfields Team
U.S. EPA - Region 2
(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 (5101)

EPA 500-F-99-120
June 1999

Outreach and Special Projects Staff (5101)

Quick Reference Fact Sheet