Environmental News

Beckie Himes
(913) 551-7003
himes.beckie@epa.gov

SPECIAL TO THE DES MOINES BUSINESS RECORD

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

August 13, 2004

FREE BROWNFIELDS CONFERENCE HELPS PUT ABANDONED LANDS TO NEW USE

Time is running short to plan for the Brownfields 2004 conference in St. Louis Sept. 20-22. The conference, with free registration, is geared toward business and industry, developers, real estate professionals, public officials, neighborhood associations and the agriculture community. It will look at ways to clean up and reuse environmentally contaminated properties.

Those properties, some 450,000 brownfields across the country, are sitting unused because they are contaminated or potentially contaminated. EPA’s Brownfields Program helps put them back into use, improving and protecting the environment, increasing local tax bases, growing jobs, and taking development pressures off open land.

In Iowa, Coralville and Clinton are two of the many cities across the country where brownfields are being restored right now, with the hope of doing even more in the future.

Coralville's City Council has been working during the last decade to revitalize a dilapidated industrial park that stood at the city's gateway. Coralville used EPA Brownfields pilot money to begin Phase II environmental assessments of the industrial park. These and subsequent assessments have acted as a catalyst for redevelopment.

The city has developed an urban renewal plan and issued municipal bonds to develop a $58 million convention center and 200-room hotel complex. These two projects alone are expected to generate as many as 2,000 jobs.

Clinton received $200,000 in Brownfields money in 1998 for investigation of potentially contaminated properties within the Liberty Square Redevelopment area and a supplemental grant of $150,000 in 2001 to continue its investigation.

The investigations have eliminated the perception of contamination at 11 properties, identified nine that need sampling, and verified contamination at six others that need further sampling. Five properties have been cleared for redevelopment, resulting in 15 to 20 new jobs.

Clinton received an additional EPA grant of $100,000 to conduct environmental investigations specifically at suspected or known locations of leaking underground storage tanks (USTs). This “UST Fields” grant was one of the first of its kind nationally.

A new Brownfields grant of $200,000 was awarded in 2003 to continue the environmental investigation of properties in the Liberty Square Redevelopment area. The grant was based on a highly competitive national review process.

St. Louis is an ideal location for Brownfields 2004. The metropolitan area has a variety of successful brownfield strategies to show off, including several in the Metro East area in Illinois. That opens the way by bus for mobile workshops offering hands-on tours of the sites and walking tours of downtown revitalization efforts.

EPA’s investment in the Brownfields Program has resulted in many accomplishments, including leveraging more than $5 billion in brownfield cleanup and redevelopment money from the private and public sectors and creating some 25,000 new jobs.

The program continues to look to the future by expanding the kinds of properties it addresses, forming new partnerships, and undertaking new initiatives to help revitalize communities across the nation. Brownfield grants serve as the foundation of EPA’s Brownfields Program. The grants support revitalization efforts by helping finance environmental assessment, cleanup and job training activities.

Assessment demonstration pilots and grants finance brownfield inventories, planning, environmental assessments, and community outreach. Brownfields Cleanup Revolving Loan Fund pilots and grants capitalize loans that are used to clean up brownfields.

Brownfield job training pilots and grants provide environmental training for residents of brownfield communities. Brownfield cleanup grants provide direct financing for cleanup activities at certain properties with planned green space, recreational, or other non-profit uses.

Conference participants can register on line through Friday, Sept. 3, and at the conference after that. Hotel reservations are available at a discount through Monday, Aug. 23. The Web site for registration and hotel reservations is http://www.brownfields2004.org.

The conference is co-sponsored by EPA and the International City/County Management Association.

Brownfields 2004 features a technical program loaded with valuable sessions. Here are just a few of the 136 scheduled sessions:

Sowing the Seeds: Engaging Farmers in the Brownfield Challenge
Several USDA programs pay farmers to create wetlands, plant trees, and reduce fertilizer runoff on farm properties. Private companies now use crop plants to remediate contaminated land, where agricultural techniques offer substantial cost efficiencies in large-scale application. How can farmers' skills and equipment be used to address brownfields cleanup needs?

Financing Opportunities and Tools for Small to Mid-Size Communities
How small to mid-sized-communities maximize their opportunities for securing brownfield financing.

Understanding Environmental Insurance
Environmental insurance is increasingly used to underwrite and manage the risks associated with brownfields redevelopment.

Brownfields 101 - Community Involvement and Stakeholder Engagement
Why some community-local government collaborative efforts in brownfields succeed, while others never get off the ground. The incentives and public participation strategies effective in creating economic development opportunities and community benefits and reducing risk from contamination.

Phoenix Awards Ceremony
The Phoenix Awards are the premier awards for excellence in brownfield redevelopment. These prestigious awards honor individuals and groups who are working to solve the critical environmental problem of transforming abandoned industrial areas into productive new uses.

Ask the Developers
A panel of experts from the private sector, non-profit organizations, and development corporations offer their perspectives on brownfield redevelopment.

Brownfields Topics for Tribes
Like other governmental entities, Native Americans are tackling brownfield projects on tribal lands. This is an interactive discussion to learn more about federal resources available to help with tribal brownfield projects.

Financing Strategies for Non-Profits
More and more non-profit and community organizations are managing brownfield projects and finding their own financial resources. This session helps uncover new ideas for and financing packages for the growing number of non-profit "developers."

Block Grants for Brownfields
An open discussion on the use of Community Development Block Grants for brownfield redevelopment under entitlement and non-entitlement programs and how this can be a resource for a community's redevelopment goals.

Investing in Citizens: Putting People to Work
Investing in communities is a fundamental concept of brownfield redevelopment. Equally important but often overlooked is the need to build sustainable capacity of community residents. This session will share ideas, experiences and perspectives on linkage with developers, job creation, job training, job development and neighborhood involvement.

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Learn more about brownfields
http://www.epa.gov/brownfields

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