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Making the Program Faster, Fairer, and More Efficient (Continued)
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Reusing Superfund Sites
The Superfund Redevelopment Initiative (SRI) was announced in 1999, but the effort to return Superfund sites to productive use has been in place for a number of years. Building on the Superfund Reforms and the Brownfields Initiative, EPA has put in place a coordinated national program to make certain that communities have the tools and information needed to realize the potential of reusing Superfund sites.
One recent success story is the Fairchild Semiconductor site in California, which now hosts the World Headquarters of Netscape Communications. The 1,600 high-tech executives and employees who work at this once-vacant property earn more than $153 million annually -- infusing over $122 million of personal spending into the economy and providing more than $11 million in local and State taxes. This now-valuable Silicon Valley property is also the current or future home of major firms like American Online, Veritas Software, Hewlett-Packard, and KPMG Peat Marwick.
The commercial redevelopment of the former Fairchild Semiconductor site is just one part of a larger plan to link the nearby residential community with the high-tech job center that now occupies the former Superfund site. Plans are underway to build light rail stations, restaurants, parks, biking trails, and open spaces.
A very different example is provided by the Chisman Creek site in Virginia, which has been transformed into a sports park containing two lighted softball fields, four soccer fields, two ponds, and the County's Memorial Tree Grove. The sports park supports a 42-team softball league in the summer, and a community youth soccer program in the fall.
There have been more than 190 such success stories at Superfund sites in all areas of the country, over 150 of them involving totally new uses for a site. Superfund sites have been cleaned up and turned into office parks, playing fields, industrial centers, shopping centers, residential areas, tourist centers, and wetlands.
The keys to successful cleanup and reuse are the community and the partnerships it can create. Each community decides how far and how wide the benefits of reusing a Superfund site will extend. But it is the partnerships that provide the fuel for success. Successful cleanup and reuse has required strong relationships between communities, EPA, local businesses, large corporations, State governments, and local officials.
