Memorandum

July 22, 2002

We are pleased to announce that we are starting a second round of RCRA Brownfields Prevention Targeted Site Efforts (TSEs) which will provide support for Regions, States, and others to try a variety of approaches in addressing challenging situations at RCRA sites. TSEs are supported by the RCRA Brownfields Prevention Initiative, which was established by EPA to encourage the reuse of potential RCRA Brownfields by stimulating cleanups so that the land better serves the needs of communities either through more productive commercial or residential development or as greenspace.

Background

The TSE program was initiated to provide a concentration of energy, attention and resources to a site in order to move it forward in the cleanup process. Last year, the Office of Solid Waste and the Outreach and Special Projects Staff (now called the Office of Brownfields Cleanup and Redevelopment, OBCR) jointly provided close to $100K worth of support to seven projects. These TSEs focused primarily on community outreach and additional site characterization. However, TSE activities at some sites dealt with unique issues, such as working with past waste contributors at a financially weak site to achieve cleanup.

Second Round of TSEs

For this second round of TSEs, we are interested in launching five to ten TSEs (at $20K-$35K each) to support specific site work (outreach, site assessment, etc.) and/or to provide assistance in fleshing out approaches and options for cleanup and reuse of the land and facilities (supporting meetings, researching options and other activities). Specifically, we are looking for proposals of TSEs at sites where stakeholders are struggling to develop an acceptable process for moving forward with corrective action. An example of such a TSE project could be working with a municipality which has a RCRA site in tax lien status and which needs to develop approaches for compiling necessary resources and also approaches to addressing corrective action at that site. A second example might be working with the RCRA cleanup program (State or Regional) and a local government in developing approaches to address cleanup at a financially weak or recalcitrant site.

We expect these will be useful case studies where lessons learned might be transferable to other sites. EPA will provide support to these projects through existing contracts and a final lessons learned report will be prepared to share results.

What Is Needed From You

The TSEs will be implemented at the Regional level. We would like to ask you to work with your States to identify a site in your Region for a TSE, and submit a short summary/proposal by August 15, 2002. The summary/proposal should include: a brief overview of the site history and regulatory status (e.g. whether it is a GPRA facility), what kind of activity you wish to perform with the TSE and what the expected outcomes are, and finally, a description of your coordination with the relevant State authority to secure their agreement to go forward with the TSE. Please submit your summary/proposal to the attention of:

Via E-mail (preferred)
Sara Rasmussen
rasmussen.sara@epa.gov

Via Pouch Mail
Sara Rasmussen
USEPA Ariel Rios (Mail Code 5303W)
1200 Pennsylvania Avenue, N. W.
Washington, D. C. 20004

Implementation

These summaries will be quickly reviewed in light of the objectives of the TSE, and selected TSEs will be announced soon after. We expect that TSE funds (between $20K and $35K per site) will be obligated by Sept 28, 2002, and will be put in either a headquarters or a regional contract. The TSE would be conducted during the next year. Upon completion, a report summarizing the TSE and options identified and evaluated, will be submitted to Headquarters. We will issue a final report summarizing the TSE project and lessons learned.

We believe this second round of TSEs has the potential to be a useful initiative for RCRA Brownfields prevention. The TSE will provide support for Regions, States, and sites to try a variety of approaches in addressing challenging situations at sites. The TSE will help us gather experience in the potential successes and impacts of such efforts, and provide useful information for other RCRA programs to consider.

If you have any questions regarding Targeted Site Efforts please contact Sara Rasmussen, OSW, at rasmussen.sara@epamail.epa.gov or (703) 308-8399 or Alison Evans, OBCR, evans.alison@epa.gov.