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2003 National Award for Smart Growth Achievement The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is pleased to announce that applications are now being accepted for the second annual National Award for Smart Growth Achievement. This competition is open to local or state governments and other public sector entities that have successfully created smart growth. Applications will be accepted in five categories:
Interested parties from urban, suburban, and rural areas are encouraged to submit applications for smart growth activities undertaken within the last five years. Successful applicants will incorporate smart growth principles to create places that respect community culture and the environment, foster economic development, and promote a better quality of life for this and future generations. Applications are due on June 30, 2003. Up to five winners will be recognized at a ceremony in Washington, D.C. in November 2003. For more details about the National Award for Smart Growth Achievement, including an application packet, visit: http://www.epa.gov/smartgrowth/awards_2003.htm. EPA Recognizes Four Communities in the Southeast as Environmental Justice Revitalization Projects The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency recognized four communities in the southeast selected as Federal Interagency Working Group (IWG) Environmental Justice Revitalization projects. Nationally, fifteen projects were selected. The purpose of the demonstration project is to examine how collaborative models can be utilized for achieving environmental justice and promoting community revitalization. Selection is not accompanied by any specific funding commitment from any federal agency; however, selection will bring the project national exposure and recognition, provide greater access to resources from various stakeholders, and promote the project as a model for future collaborative partnerships. The four community revitalization projects include the following: City of Anniston, Alabama ACTION, Inc., Belle Glade, Florida City of Princeville, North Carolina Rock Hill Council of Neighborhoods, Rock Hill, South Carolina IWG Environmental Justice Revitalization Projects are designed to demonstrate the collaborative models to achieve environmental justice and promote community revitalization. The projects selected are intended to demonstrate the “best practices” of comprehensive, collaborative, and integrated problem solving approaches and address the range of interrelated environmental, public health, economic, and social concerns that collectively are known as environmental justice issues. These projects are based upon voluntary, local partnerships that build upon a holistic community vision. Centered in urban, tribal, and rural communities across the country, the demonstration projects focus on improving the quality of life for minority, low-income, and tribal populations through environmental protection, economic development, neighborhood revitalization, community education, public health promotion, and capacity building. IWG demonstration projects foster proactive, collaborative efforts that bring agencies, at all levels of government, to partner with diverse stakeholders in impacted communities. Together at “the table,” for the first time in some cases, participants may (1) better understand each other’s perspectives, (2) identify mutual interests and priorities, and (3) with this broader and shared view, mobilize existing resources (i.e., social, human, and financial) for the purpose of creating win-win solutions. For more information, contact Fred Thornburg at thornburg.fred@epa.gov. For a brief description of each community project, visit: www.epa.gov/region04/oeapages/03%20press/041503.htm Technology and Training Opportunities Abound at RevTech Conference This year’s RevTech Conference, to be held July 22-24, 2003 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, will focus on applying innovative technologies and approaches in a reuse setting. Co-sponsored by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the conference will offer technical, financial, and regulatory sessions complete with case study examples. The New Jersey Institute of Technology has organized a Technology Fair where vendors will introduce conference attendees to a variety of remediation technologies and real time/near real time environmental measuring instruments with a focus on application of these technologies to reuse efforts. Training and workshop opportunities will also be offered at the conference. The Field-Based Site Characterization training course is scheduled for July 21 and is a moderate to advanced level program that provides an introduction to a wide array of the latest technologies and approaches used to characterize hazardous waste sites. During the afternoon of July 24, several workshops may be offered: Accessing Information Resources, UST Online Calculators, and the ITRC Internet Workshop. You may indicate your wish to participate in these learning opportunities when you register for the conference by visiting the RevTech Conference web site at http://www.brownfieldstsc.org. For those conference attendees who find baseball appealing, the Pittsburgh Pirates will play the Houston Astros at PNC Park on the evening of July 22 at 7 p.m. Tickets range in price from $10-$35. Information regarding ticket purchases is available at the RevTech Conference web site. To register for this conference, please visit: http://www.brownfieldstsc.org. $29.5 Million Available through Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Brownfields Economic Development Initiative The Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) recently announced the availability of Fiscal Year 2003 funding opportunities, including grants through its Brownfields Economic Development Initiative (BEDI). HUD’s BEDI program will provide approximately $29.5 million to be used in conjunction with Section 108 loan guarantee funds. HUD encourages brownfields economic development projects that propose the redevelopment of brownfields sites through new investments and result in the creation of new businesses and jobs, and increases in the local tax base or other near-term, measurable economic benefits. Proposals are due July 16, 2003. For more information, visit http://www.hud.gov/offices/adm/grants/nofa/grpecond.cfm New EPA National Initiative Promotes Reuse, Economic Revitalization in Superfund, Other Waste Cleanup Programs Accelerating its efforts to revitalize communities and stimulate the economy by restoring contaminated properties, EPA announced a new national initiative to incorporate land reuse into its Superfund, Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA), Brownfields, and Underground Storage Tank hazardous waste cleanup programs. EPA Administrator Christie Whitman announced the “Land Revitalization Agenda” at the Harbor Point site (formerly AlliedSignal), a 27-acre peninsula in Baltimore’s Inner Harbor. The site was successfully cleaned up in February 2000 under RCRA’s Corrective Action Program. Plans for Harbor Point redevelopment call for 1.8 million square feet of mixed-used space, representing up to $400 million in new investment and creating as many as 5,000 jobs. The national Agenda outlines 60 items that EPA can use to integrate land reuse into its cleanup programs throughout the country. Examples of these include: (1) EPA review of policies and practices concerning liability issues to promote, where appropriate, revitalization of properties, (2) EPA leveraging grant resources across multiple federal cleanup programs to facilitate area-wide cleanup and reuse of multiple contaminated properties, and (3) EPA piloting the use of written determinations stating that once-contaminated properties are ready for appropriate reuses. New legislation has strengthened the federal commitment to cleanup brownfields; however, cleanup alone is not enough. It is important to help communities take the next step - making good use of the clean land. The Land Revitalization Agenda is a comprehensive plan to build the partnerships needed to unleash the energy and commitment of America’s communities and business leaders, entrepreneurs, and visionaries to make dreams become realities. EPA, U.S. Department of Justice, and Maryland Department of Environmental Protection officials negotiated a RCRA Consent Decree with AlliedSignal to clean up the chromium-contaminated site, which resulted from 140 years of chemical manufacturing. AlliedSignal, now Honeywell, acquired the property in 1954 and facility operations resulted in significant amounts of chromium, a carcinogen, being discharged into the harbor. The subsequent chromium cleanup and closure project cost over $100 million. To facilitate redevelopment, EPA has negotiated a Prospective Lessee Agreement (PLA), subject to public comment, to resolve potential environmental liability. The redevelopment master plan also calls for a major public park and promenade. EPA’s Mid-Atlantic Region’s Smart Growth Memorandum of Agreement helped bring about the PLA. Reuse has occurred at 300 former Superfund sites. In the 1990s, EPA launched Correction Action reforms aimed at accelerating cleanups at industrial sites (Under RCRA Corrective Action, cleanups are required for all waste leaking into the environment from any source at a hazardous waste facility.) As a result, EPA and the states now have brought hundreds of RCRA facilities under control. Nearly 40 percent of these sites have either completed or made significant progress in their cleanups. Learn more about the Land Revitalization Agenda at http://www.epa.gov/oswer/landrevitalization or by contacting Dave Ryan by phone at 202-564-7827 or via e-mail at ryan.dave@epa.gov. |
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