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Brownfields Quarterly Community Report

VOLUME 1 NUMBER 4      SPRING 1998

Brownfields '97 Provides National Forum to Discuss Redevelopment and Cleanup IssuesTo the top

Almost two thousand people from across the country attended Brownfields '97 hosted by EPA, at the Kansas City Convention Center in Kansas City, Missouri, September 3-5, 1997. Substantial growth in attendance at the conference from the first national brownfields conference in 1996 is indicative of the ongoing and growing interest in brownfields throughout the country and the broad spectrum of stakeholders. Among the attendees were representatives from communities, federal, state, and local agencies, financial institutions, real estate firms, academia, environmental consulting, and environmental law firms.

"The theme for the conference 'Partnering for a Greener Tomorrow' is more than just a slogan. It epitomizes what we have been trying to do in the brownfields arena over the past few years," said the Honorable Carol Browner, Administrator, EPA.

Over 250 speakers shared their expertise in panels and workshops focusing on five major areas: assessment and cleanup, community involvement, finance, legal issues, and redevelopment/sustainable use. Attendees also had an opportunity to see the brownfields related products and services of over 90 exhibitors.

Timothy Fields, Jr., Acting Assistant Administrator, Office of Emergency and Remedial Response, USEPA, was the Master of Ceremonies. The attendees were warmly welcomed by the Mayor of the host city, the Honorable Emmanuel Cleaver II, and his counterpart in neighboring Kansas City, Kansas, the Honorable Carol S. Marinovich. Governor Mel Carnahan of Missouri talked about the state's emphasis on environmental cleanup and the acceptance of the state's Voluntary Cleanup Program by EPA.

In his keynote address, Minnesota's Attor-ney General, Hubert H. Humphrey III, proudly traced his own state's innovations in redeveloping industrial sites back almost a decade to the 1988 passage of the Minnesota Property Transfer Program. This program led four years later to the State's Voluntary Cleanup Program and Land Recycling Act of 1992. These initiatives, and such Minnesota success stories as the "recycling" of the New Brighton Site, a state and federal Superfund site, were recognized in 1994 with a Ford Foundation Award for Innovation.

The city government perspective was offered by the Honorable Paul Helmke, Mayor of Fort Wayne, Indiana and President of the U.S. Conference of Mayors. Mayor Helmke urged participants to work locally and nationally to change spending priorities, push partnerships, and keep the focus on the overall potential of sites and communities rather than the often complex process of redevelopment. He also counseled his colleagues at the state and federal level to avoid the pitfalls which are often brought about when transporta- tion or environmental planning decisions made in these arenas come back with unintended consequences to penalize cities and their aging industrial sites.

Dr. Beverly Wright, Director of the Deep South Center for Environmental Justice at Xavier University, discussed the importance of the concept of neighborhood and community involvement and the strides being made through the Minority Worker Training program in New Orleans. The program, a joint effort with the National Institutes of Environmental Health Science and Clark Atlanta University, trains people in high risk areas to work in hazardous remediation.

The conference was co-sponsored by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Mortgage Bankers Association of America, Environmental Council of States, U.S. Conference of Mayors, American Bar Association, International City/County Management Association, National Conference of Black Mayors, Inc., the Trust for Public Land, and the National Religious Partnership for the Environment.

Planning for Brownfields '98 has begun. This year's conference, "Brownfields '98: The Basics and Beyond" is scheduled for November 16-18, 1998 at the Los Angeles Convention Center in Los Angeles, California. p

New York State's Brownfields ProgramsTo the top

New York State has put substantial energy and resources toward the redevelopment of industrial sites. The state's Voluntary Cleanup Program was initiated in 1994. Since then, proposals have been made in the New York State legislature to provide a specific statutory framework to address brownfields issues, but no such legislation has been enacted. The Voluntary Cleanup Program developed under the regulatory authority of the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (NYSDEC) still functions with the same basic program elements it began with in 1994.

The program can apply to any contaminated property in New York in which the federal government does not have lead responsibility. It is aimed at parties who are not potentially responsible parties (PRPs), that is, who are not responsible under the law to remediate contaminated property. This can include the present owner if that party purchased the property in a contaminated condition and was not otherwise responsible as a PRP, developers or other prospective purchasers, municipalities and even PRP's in situations that do not involve Superfund Class 1 or Class 2 sites or sites already subject to enforcement actions.

Key components of the program include the commitment document agreed upon between the "volunteer" and NYSDEC. This can be either a consent order or an agreement which defines the extent of the volunteer's activities (e.g., investigation only, remediation only, or a combination of both). Cleanup levels are negotiated on a site-specific basis. At completion of cleanup, a "qualified release" letter is issued by NYSDEC, stating that the agency does not contemplate further action at the site. NYSDEC also releases the volunteer from further past contamination cleanup liability. Over 50 agreements pertaining to approximately 100 sites have been signed to date.

A second major program to deal with site cleanup and redevelopment was approved by New York State voters as part of the New York State Clean Water/Clean Air Bond Act of 1996, which included $200 million for restoration of municipal brownfields. Municipalities can apply for up to 75% of the cost of investigating and cleaning up contamination they did not cause on property they now hold. These cleanups must comply with state Superfund standards. Under the guidelines of this program, NYSDEC will release municipal owners from liability relating to the past contamination at the site. Municipalities have already moved to take advantage of this program, often as part of their overall brownfields strategy, which can include access to the programs of the federal Brownfields Initiative and other state financing mechanisms.

For more information, please contact Christine Costopoulos, NYSDEC, at (518) 457-7894. p

WORKS IN PROGRESS

This issue of the BQCR reports on how five of the Region's Pilot Projects are tackling the Brownfields challenge: their goals, their strategies and their progress to date .

Glen Cove: Focusing on the WaterfrontTo the top

Efforts to revitalize Glen Cove's aging industrial waterfront had been in progress for several years when EPA awarded the city a Region 2 brownfields pilot grant. In March 1998, in addition to its ongoing brownfields pilot project, Vice President Gore announced that the city of Glen Cove had been selected as a national Brownfields Showcase Community. This designation adds $1.4 million in federal assistance to support Glen Cove's plans for its industrial waterfront. Backed with this federal support, Glen Cove officials are hoping to leverage $270 million more in private investment to create a regional tourist destination complete with ferry service, a hotel, shopping and restaurants.

The waterfront project calls for the completion of the Local Waterfront Revitalization Program, development of a harbor management plan, creation of an economic development/design plan for the waterfront, and dredging the Glen Cove Creek. The New York State Department of State has identified this area as a historic maritime region and one of three maritime centers on Long Island Sound to be targeted for waterfront redevelopment. Prior to becoming a federal Brownfields Showcase Community, Glen Coves waterfront project had received more than $1.5 million from federal, state, local and private sources. The new Showcase Community designation and the pilot project have added a focus on brownfields restoration to this effort. As revitalization efforts proceed, they will include an examination of potential brownfields properties, an assessment of their environmental and health concerns, and evaluation of their potential for remediation and reuse.

Specifically, the brownfields pilot project adds $50,000 toward the creation of a community-based plan to promote the reuse of brownfields properties in the area. To develop that plan, the city will identify and investigate potential brownfields sites; coordinate activities of lead agencies and responsible parties; facilitate dispute resolution activities; coordinate public participation, risk communication and environmental justice activities with the community; and promote redevelopment of the sites by defraying the costs associated with re-zoning and identifying potentially innovative cleanup technologies.

Once local brownfields properties are inventoried and prioritized, the city anticipates investigating four to eight sites as part of the pilot project. Those local sites now under investigation and remediation through EPA or the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation will not be considered pilot site candidates. Based on preliminary work, the final pilot project sites are likely to include small sites (less than 2 acres in size) formerly used for printing, salvage, waste transfer, and concrete operations.

Phase II site assessments will be conducted at these pilot sites including exposure or qualitative risk assessments to determine the potential for human contact with contaminants. Because most of the creek area will be developed for commercial land use, the city expects most of the cleanups to comply with risk-based concentrations for nonresidential areas. Recommendations for remediation will focus on site engineering mechanisms such as pavement, soil cover and buildings as measures to eliminate contaminant exposure pathways. The entire project, concluding with the preparation of site assessment reports for each selected site, is expected to take 16 to 24 months.

Once the site assessments have been completed, the city of Glen Cove hopes to secure funding for remediation from a variety of sources such as the 1996 New York State Clean Water/Clean Air Bond Act which provides reimbursement to municipalities for brownfields remediation under the Environmental Restoration Program, federal Housing and Urban Development Section 108 loans, and HUD Community Development Block Grants. The city has already proven its ability to secure funding for its redevelopment effort from disparate public and private sources. Officials believe the brownfields pilot project and the Showcase Community assistance will further enhance that ability and enable them to attract significant private investment as well.

"Its another piece of the puzzle, a way for us to show people, 'Hey, EPA is involved. And the money grows," said Robert Benrubi, Executive Director of the Glen Cove Redevelopment Agency. EPAs involvement through brownfields redevelopment, says Benrubi, is a "huge boost."

Mr. Benrubi may be reached at (516) 676-1625, or call Ed Als, USEPA, at (212) 637-4272. p

New York City Task Force Moves to Select Sites To the top

Awarded an EPA brownfields pilot project grant in March 1996, the City of New York is now entering the final segment of its pilot work plan: site selection and the opportunity to test new approaches to redevelopment. Having enlisted more than 150 stakeholders to participate through the New York City Brownfields Task Force, and enlisting those stakeholders to review existing information and identify novel approaches to redevelopment employed elsewhere, the city is now working to focus its findings on a handful of demonstration sites.

Like most pilot projects, New York's goal is to create a locally-specific framework to identify and test measures that will accelerate the pace and enlarge the scale of site cleanups and redevelopment. To make the most of the Task Force members collective expertise, the group divided into five subgroups which have been working independently to gather baseline data on past cleanups, current brownfields site assessment procedures and redevelopment practices, and obstacles to brownfields reuse. In addition, the Task Force prepared a Community Outreach Plan identifying the areas in the city with the greatest number and acreage of vacant and underutilized industrial sites. The city met this winter with 26 community boards from those areas most blighted by brownfields, and is now selecting five demonstration sites on which to test innovative cleanup and redevelopment approaches.

Eager to learn from the success of other programs, in June 1997 the Task Force held a forum to further understand how New York City might adapt redevelopment programs used in other cities to New York's unique needs. Senior government representatives from six states shared with New Yorkers innovative approaches to brownfields site assessment and cleanup. Participants were specifically asked to discuss how their program or initiative would address specific prototypical site scenarios based on New York Citys brownfields situation. The forum was heralded as a tremendous success, informing New York City on innovative approaches to brownfields cleanup and helping the city both to identify issues needing further exploration and to select the final criteria that will be used in choosing the demonstration sites.

New York City is now completing its analysis of current practices and innovative approaches, evaluating the Geographic Information System (GIS) data on brownfields properties collected under the program, finalizing site selection criteria, and selecting the demonstration sites. Once the pilot sites are chosen, the city will proceed to assess the contamination at the sites and pursue cleanup plans.

To prepare for this end process, New York City has already applied and received approval for funding from the New York State Clean Water/Clean Air Bond Act to help pay for investigation and cleanup of 15 sites in the city, some of which may be selected as demonstration sites. New York City will also consider remediating sites under the New York State Voluntary Cleanup Program where appropriate.

According to Benjamin Miller, Deputy Director of the Mayors Office of Environmental Coordination, the city is seeking a mix of demonstration sites that will display situations that are typical of brownfields properties in the city, yet also present different ownership and cleanup scenarios. As it meets with local community boards, the city will be looking for potential demonstration sites that can be matched with identifiable end uses, said Miller.

As work proceeds, the Task Force and the city will prepare several documents detailing the findings of this extensive research effort. These reports will identify baseline conditions for New York City today, examining the potential universe of brownfields properties, present insurance and investment constraints and opportunities, the laws and regulations currently in effect, and describing new guidelines now being drafted by New York City and New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (NYSDEC). These reports, though local in focus, can help other communities understand what kind of effort is necessary to begin to address their local brownfields issues. In addition, the city will prepare reports on its pilot sites, brownfields programs nationwide, and a final recommendations report for New York City brownfields.

For more information please contact Annette Barbaccia, New York City Coordinator at (212) 788-2937 or Christos Tsiamis, USEPA at (212) 637-4257.p

Workshop Inaugurates Jersey City PilotTo the top

On October 3, 1997 Jersey City held a brownfields workshop to introduce its plans under the recently awarded EPA Brownfields Assessment Demonstration Pilot Grant. The workshop was sponsored by EPA. Participants in the workshop included community members, industrial property owners and developers as well as representatives from federal, state and city government offices. Jersey City's Mayor, Bret Schundler, welcomed participants and encouraged all levels of private and public involvement by describing the brownfields initiative as "a regional issue as well as a neighborhood issue."

Key speakers included Professor Albert Price, of the State University of New York at Buffalo, who provided the historical context by discussing changing patterns of urban development and redevelopment, and Charles Bartsch, of the Northeast Midwest Institute, who presented numerous examples of how other cities have dealt with barriers to the brownfields redevelopment process. Representatives of the Jersey City Redevelopment Agency discussed the specific plans for Jersey City's Brownfields Pilot Project. The goal of the project, they said, is to create a standardized process for redeveloping brownfields. This process will emphasize increasing the municipal tax base, creating industrial jobs, and identifying and reducing the potential exposure to contaminants.

In the last portion of the workshop, participants aired questions and concerns in the spirit of beginning a mutually beneficial dialogue between the private and public sector. The city hopes the success of this initial "kickoff" workshop will attract more interested parties to the subsequent stakeholders meetings.

The city chose the Lafayette Park area for initial redevelopment based on its mix of industrial and residential land uses, its large concentration of industrial properties -- either abandoned or having substantial municipal tax liens allowing foreclosure by the city -- and local residents in need of jobs. Jersey City began analysis of the target area by mapping the location and land use of 850 properties using Geographic Information Systems (GIS). The city continues to gather information on property characteristics, such as building conditions, tax liens and known contamination, which will be included in the GIS maps. As part of the redevelopment program, Jersey City also plans to guide efforts to preserve historic structures and to designate industrial/residential zones in the Lafayette Park area.

Experienced with previous community-development programs, Jersey City is committed to keeping all stakeholders informed. Community involvement activities underway include holding stakeholder meetings, disseminating site information through flyers and newsletters and media coverage.

For more information please contact Sanford Greenberg in Jersey City at (201) 547-4790 or Chelsea Albucher, USEPA at (212) 637-4291. p

Buffalo Brownfields Enter Action PhaseTo the top

After two-plus years of work to promote redevelopment, the City of Buffalo, New York is beginning to reap the benefits of its EPA Brownfields Pilot Grant. As two redevelopment projects near completion, several others are undergoing site assessment and cleanup planning.

At the height of its manufacturing operations Buffalo was home to 625,000 people. A third of this population lived in residential neighborhoods interspersed with the manufacturing plants where they labored. The 1978 discovery of toxic contaminants in nearby Love Canal initiated a national environmental awareness. Buffalo established task forces, working groups, and commissions to focus on particular environmental concerns and came to discover the many contaminated industrial sites throughout the city. Today, life for Buffalos 328,000 residents is impacted by more than 60 sites on the federal hazardous waste site inventory and 30 properties listed on New York States registry of inactive hazardous waste sites.

When Buffalo applied for pilot project funding in 1995, it had already paved the way for significant local action. Interested groups had begun to examine the potential and need for redeveloping Buffalos brownfields, and two independent focus group studies on the local situation had prompted the city to appoint a Brownfields Task Force to spur actual redevelopment. This Task Force, through the EPA pilot project grant, became the umbrella under which the areas various brownfields efforts were coordinated. Working with the Buffalo Environmental Management Commission and the pilot project-funded Brownfields Development Coordinator and Brownfields Community Coordinator, the Task Force set out to produce:

Today, two years later, the Task Force has, for the most part, accomplished each of these goals. In 1996, environmental staff assisted by the Task Force identified a list of potentially contaminated properties for environmental assessment. Using an existing property inventory, it gathered detailed site information and mapped 22 potential sites for assessment. Subgroups established criteria for ranking each of the 22 sites according to their ease of development with respect to planning and land use, legal and financial concerns, and environmental and public health issues. Based on these criteria, the city identified nine key sites, representing a mix of public and private properties with near term development potential, each of which factors significantly into the citys long term development plans.

In September 1997, Buffalo requested an extension of the time period for the pilot project in order to fully complete the major activities set out in the work plan. Site assessments are underway at the nine candidate sites. Money remaining from the grant is also being used to conduct assessments at additional sites. Funding from the New York State Clean Water/Clean Air Bond Act has been used for assessing three sites. The city plans to use the results of the assessments to determine the best way to proceed to remediate each location. In several instances the city could decide to purchase the site prior to cleanup and proceed to remediate the site voluntarily or to pursue further Bond Act funding.

Two additional sites are moving rapidly towards redevelopment. An indoor hydroponics facility newly developed on a formerly contaminated property will begin tomato production this spring. The Buffalo Urban Renewal Agency has also acquired a brownfields site and is moving to develop that property as a light industrial/manufacturing operation.

The completion of the Phase I assessments of the target sites will conclude Buffalos pilot project, but is not expected to slow the local momentum on brownfields redevelopment. The pilot project has taught the city what is possible. With technical environmental staff now on board, contaminated properties which were once taboo can be assessed and promoted for cleanup and redevelopment. The pilot grant allowed the city to effectively integrate environmental concerns into its redevelopment planning. Buffalo's future redevelopment is now wide open-- brownfields and all. For more information, please contact Jim Smith in Buffalo at (716) 851-5633 or Kevin Matheis, USEPA at (716) 873-5042.p

Puerto Rico's Pilot Project: "Recycling" Buildings for Economic Development To the top

The first EPA National Brownfield Assessment Demonstration Pilot in the Caribbean within EPA Region 2 is now established in Puerto Rico. The pilot grant was awarded in September 1997 to the Puerto Rico Industrial Development Company (PRIDCO).

PRIDCO is a public corporation and government entity in charge of promoting the establishment of foreign and local industries in Puerto Rico. As part of its role, PRIDCO owns more than 1,400 buildings throughout the island which it leases to industrial companies. The buildings represent an area of about 24 million square feet; roughly 91 percent of Puerto Rico's industrially developed sites. Upon receiving the award, Jaime Morgan Stubbe, Executive Director of PRIDCO, announced: "What this program does is reduce the risk for investors in properties that are perceived to be contaminated and it allows us to reuse industrial facilities that have been closed for years."

One such site is the former Hato Rey Electroplating property in the Canteras Community of San Juan. The facility has been closed for 10 years and community members have actively expressed interest in its potential as a recycling plant. However, concern that the site is contaminated has prevented developers from stepping in. PRIDCO chose the former Hato Rey Electroplating property as its first pilot site for initial assessment. Two other pilot sites will be identified based on criteria outlined in the pilot's work plan.

Because Puerto Rico lacks specific policies on site redevelopment such as the voluntary cleanup programs found in a number of states, PRIDCO is playing an important role in communicating with public agencies responsible for reviewing and ultimately approving redevelopment projects. The targeted agencies include, but are not limited to, the Environmental Quality Board (the agency responsible for the approval of site investigations, covenants and government assurances), the Department of Natural and Environmental Resources, the Solid Waste Management Authority and The Puerto Rico Planning Board. With the help of EPA, PRIDCO will organize a meeting to acquaint these and other agencies with the goals of EPA's National Brownfields Pilot Program and how they fit within Puerto Rico's regulatory scheme. PRIDCO also intends to emphasize its island-wide application of the program including integral aspects of community and private sector involvement. The PRIDCO pilot process includes community and private sector involvement and holds island-wide application.

In order to insure the pilot's success PRIDCO will educate selected stakeholders and community members on general brownfields issues (such as federal and local liability), grant requirements and site-specific redevelopment issues. Drawing from this experience, PRIDCO will also develop training materials that can be adapted towards Hispanic communities throughout the USA.

PRIDCO representatives are hopeful about the potential of this grant. They believe that the training program will help eliminate the misconception that many of Puerto Rico's industrial sites are contaminated beyond repair. "Recycling" of properties, as Mr. Morgan Stubbe has called it, will not only provide jobs in depressed areas, it will also encourage resource conservation by preventing industrial development on the island's natural areas.

For more information on Puerto Rico's EPA brownfields pilot project, contact Mr. José Perez Hernandez, Brownfields Project Manager at (787) 754-7546 or Carlos O'Neill, USEPA at (787) 729-6951. p

 

FACTS FROM THE FIELD
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The information included in this section was based on Winter 1997 data provided by the seven pilot projects in Region 2 that have selected demonstration sites for initial assessment.

Size of Brownfields Pilot Sites

Although brownfield sites are too varied to allow any single site to be called 'typical', some general trends are emerging as pilot grant recipients choose specific demonstration sites. 62% of the 21 pilot sites of known size in Region 2 range between one and ten acres, followed by 24% of sites ranging between 11-20 acres (Figure 1). Of the sites ranging between 1-10 acres, 71% are 5 acres or less.

Previous and Proposed Uses of Brownfields Pilot Sites To the top

The following list provides examples of the previous and proposed uses of 10 selected brownfields demonstration sites in New York, New Jersey and Puerto Rico. The variety of uses highlights the numerous possibilities for brownfields redevelopment in Region 2.

Location Size (acres) Previous Use Proposed Use
NY 5 Railroad warehouse Light industrial manufacturing
NY 7.8 Undeveloped site/baseball field with illegal dumping Industrial park with new access to highway
NY 17 Finished sheet metal, copper Business park and iron products and stranded cable
NJ 2.4 Brewery Family entertainment near baseball park
NJ 20 Food products manufacturing, bulk materials debris disposal Community services (i.e police station)
NJ 1.7 Textile chemical factory Expansion of adjacent business
NJ 7.5 Lead acid battery manufacturing Mixed use, residential open space

 
NJ <1 Bulk materials facility Institutional/ residential (i.e. senior assisted living)
NJ <2 Foundry Recreation open space
PR <5 Electroplating manufacturing facility Recycling facility

EPA NEWS RELEASE

 

Jeanne Fox

EPA Region 2 Administrator

Addresses Camden Opportunities

To the top

The City of Camden, NJ hosted more than 650 people at its recent Business and Development Opportunities Con ference. Designed to showcase the city to developers and businesses, the event proved to be a public affirmation of Camden's proud past and its hopeful future. In her remarks to the standing-room-only crowd, EPA Region 2 Ad ministrator Jeanne Fox described the local redevelopment opportunity pre sented by the city's brownfields.

"In Camden, the total number of acres of brownfields is almost equal to the amount of land devoted to productive manufacturing," said Fox. "In that ur ban blight lies opportunity to restore that land to productive, job-creating, profit-making assets."

EPA acts as a partner, not a com mander in bringing appropriate rede velopment to areas where it makes sense, areas with infrastructure and people to fill new jobs, said Fox. To that end, EPA has worked to better de-fine the liability associated with these sites and protect innocent landowners, lenders and developers. And, the new brownfields tax incentive makes cleanup costs fully deductible in the year in which they are incurred. These public measures combined with the EPA pilot grants can leverage private investment and evolve the broad-based local partnerships needed for success, said Fox.

The gathering included federal, state, local, and nonprofit agencies, and busi nesses, all looking to get a peek into Camden's future. According to pub lished reports, Camden Mayor Milton Milan's goal in hosting the event is to spread the word on what Camden has to offer. City assets highlighted at the conference include Camden's strategic location as a transportation hub, its presence in one of the nation's top re tail sales markets, its benefits as a state and federal empowerment zone, and its large work force.p

 

Brownfields Calendar of Events

 

September 15-17, 1998

Warsaw, Poland

International Symposium and

Exhibition on Environmental

Contamination in Central and

Eastern Europe

Sponsored by Florida State University. Experts discussing and demonstrating innovative technologies and environ mental management methods. Call (850) 644-7211 for information.

August 10-14, 1998
To the top
Washington, DC

Neighborhood Reinvestment

Training Institute

The Institute will offer several courses in the areas of community planning, economic development and leadership and management. Courses are geared to train staff of organizations commit ted to improving the vitality of neigh borhood economies and the quality of community life.

For a full scope of courses offered call Lucy Rosario at (800) 438-5547 or visit their Web site at http://www.nw.org

 

Brownfields Showcase Communities Announced

EPA and a partnership of federal agencies selected 16 communities around the nation to participate in the Brownfields Showcase Communities pilot program. Under this program, the selected communities will receive funding and a wide range of technical assistance intended to link federal, state, local and private sector action towards redeveloping brownfields. Each city will be assigned a federal staff person to serve as a liaison between the community and the federal government. The staff person will to help determine specific needs and develop a customized plan for federal brownfields assistance.

Two cities in Region 2, Trenton, NJ and Glen Cove, NY, are among the 16 communities which will benefit from the $28 million national program. The Showcase Communities will serve as national models demonstrating the positive results of public and private collaboration on brownfields challenges.

Initially, 231 interested communities applied by submitting a short Statement of Interest addressing their brownfields potential, community need, local commitment, and partnership opportunities. Forty finalists then submitted more detailed applications. On March 17, 1998, Vice President Gore announced the final 16 Showcase Communities. The Brownfields Showcase Communities are:To the top

Balimore, MD Trenton, NJ
Chicago, IL Lowell, MA
Dallas, TX Portland, OR
East Palo Alto, CA State of Rhode Island
Eastward Ho!, FL St. Paul, MN
Glen Cove, NY Salt Lake City, UT
Kansas City, MO Seattle, WA
Los Angeles, CA Stamford, CT

For additional information on the Brownfields Showcase Communities Program contact Gayle Rice at EPAs headquarters office at (202) 260-8431 or Chelsea Albucher at EPA's Region 2 office at (212) 637-4291 or visit the EPAs brownfields web site at www.epa.gov/brownfields. p

MARK YOUR CALENDARS!
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Brownfields '98:

The Basics and Beyond

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency

November 16-18, 1998

Los Angeles, California

 

See EPA's Outreach and Special Projects Staff Web Page for further information:

http://www.epa.gov/brownfields

The Brownfields Quarterly Community Report welcomes news about local brownfields efforts by community groups and others. If you have a story about what's happening where you are, please contact Suzanne Becker, TRC Environmental Corporation, 200 Church Street, New York, NY 10013. Editorial staff retain the right to review and revise all text as necessary for publication.

 

More Quarterly Reports

Brownfields Redevelopment through partnerships: Industry, Business, Government, Community

 

Regional Brownfields Hotline (800) 346-5009

Pilots in Region 2 | Pilot Assessments | National Web Site |Grant Application  |Contacts | Resource Directory | Quarterly Reports

For information, contact: brownfields.r2@epa.gov

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