IN
THIS ISSUE:
2004
Phoenix Award ™Winners Announced
The Phoenix Awards™ Executive Committee has announced
this year’s national award winners. The 2004 Phoenix
Awards will be presented during the Brownfields 2004 Conference in
St. Louis, Missouri, September 20-22, 2004.
Created in 1997, this prestigious award honors individuals
and groups who are working to solve the critical environmental
challenge of transforming abandoned industrial areas into
productive new uses. The 2004 Phoenix Award winners represent
outstanding brownfields projects from each of the ten U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regions and the International
community. This year, three Community Impact Award winners
will also be recognized. During the ceremony, the Phoenix
Awards Grand Prize and First Runner-Up winners will be announced,
as well as the winner of the People’s Choice Award.
The People’s
Choice Award is presented to the project that receives the
most votes from conference attendees.
This year’s Phoenix Award recipients are:
- Region 1: Bay Street Project, Dorchester, Massachusetts
- Region 2: Yonkers Public Library Project, Yonkers,
New York
- Region 3: Mingo County Wood Products Industrial Park,
Mingo County, West Virginia
- Region 4: Atlantic Station, Atlanta, Georgia
- Region 5: Chicago Manufacturing Campus, Chicago, Illinois
- Region 6: Cimarron Center Redevelopment Project, Sand
Springs, Oklahoma
- Region 7: Renaissance Grant and Suites Hotels, St.
Louis, Missouri
- Region 8: Belmar Urban Center, Lakewood, Colorado
- Region 9: Rio Nuevo North Redevelopment Project, Tucson,
Arizona
- Region 10: Terminal 18 Redevelopment Project, Seattle,
Washington
This year’s Community Impact Award winners are:
- The Home of the Innocents, Louisville, Kentucky
- Battle Monument Area Brownfields Redevelopment Project,
Trenton, New Jersey
- Oakland Habitat for Humanity Housing, Oakland, California
The International Award recipient is:
- Pionierpark, Muehlheim, Germany
To learn more about these outstanding projects, join us
at Brownfields 2004. For national conference information,
visit http://www.brownfields2004.org.
For more information on The Phoenix Awards ™, visit http://www.phoenixawards.org.
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Job Training and Recruitment Programs Revamp Contaminated
Neighborhoods Job training and recruitment programs initiated by Groundwork
Providence, Inc. have helped clean up some of Providence’s
most contaminated neighborhoods. Groundwork Providence, Inc.
is an innovative and successful environmental nonprofit organization
in Providence, R.I. Their mission is to facilitate sustained
regeneration, improvement, and management of the physical
environment by developing community-based partnerships to
promote environmental, economic, and social prosperity.
With the help of a $200,000 EPA Brownfields Job Training
Grant awarded in 2002, Groundwork Providence is already training
and recruiting community members directly affected by environmental
contamination on area brownfields to transform these desolate
portions of the city into clean and community-friendly businesses,
green spaces, and affordable housing.
Grant funds implemented a community outreach
program reaching into Providence’s most disadvantaged
neighborhoods to recruit young, unemployed, or undereducated
members of the community for training that will certify them
for jobs in environmental contracting work. The program will
train 90 men and women
providing them with the opportunity to attain salaries
and benefits packages not available to them before.
This innovative program links the entire community through
partnerships with organizations, businesses, and agencies
throughout Rhode Island. Once recruited, trainees take part
in a three-step curriculum created with input from some of
Rhode Island’s
most prominent employers, educators, and industry professionals.
Graduates will
be assisted with placement in permanent environmental jobs.
For more information on this program, contact Sally Turner,
Assistant Director, Groundwork Providence at 401-351-6440
or via e-mail at sally@groundworkprovidence.org.
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Portfields – The Wave of the
Future
The Portfields Initiative, a partnership between EPA, the
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and
five other federal agencies, focuses on the revitalization
of port communities and marine transportation, as well as
the protection of the coastal environment. Three EPA Brownfields
Assessment Pilot grant recipients – New Bedford, Massachusetts;
Tampa, Florida; and Port of Bellingham, Washington – were
selected as Portfields Pilot Ports due to their strong commitment
to waterfront revitalization, facility
planning and habitat restoration.
Expecting maritime trade to double by the year
2020, businesses are looking for viable waterfront locations
for their manufacturing, shipping, and tourist trades. In
the past, as waterfront manufacturing interests changed,
these properties were abandoned leaving communities with
fewer jobs, increased poverty, and properties with perceived
contamination. Revitalizing ports
increases business
trade, and returns revenue and jobs to depressed communities.
The Portfields Initiative’s federal partners are
working to provide targeted resources to assist the designated
Pilot Ports. NOAA is providing each Pilot Port with $30,000
for implementation of the Initiative; EPA
is providing targeted brownfields assessment assistance;
and the Economic Development Administration could offer financial
assistance for economic development planning, market feasibility
analysis, and port infrastructure improvements. The U.S.
Department of Labor’s Employment and Training Administration,
the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, and the Maritime Administration,
are also offering technical and administrative assistance.
EPA has provided Brownfields grants to more than 140 communities
in which waterfront revitalization was part of ultimate redevelopment
goals. EPA, along with the other Portfields federal
agencies, will work closely with the three chosen ports to
further create jobs, leverage funding, and redevelop precious
waterfront areas.
To learn about specific redevelopment plans for each Port
Pilot, visit http://www.epa.gov/brownfields/success/portfields.pdf
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Virginia, Minnesota: Creating Housing for Everyone The
city of Virginia, MN, located approximately 60 miles north
of Duluth, has a history of iron ore and taconite mining.
To address contamination issues related to former mining
activity, EPA awarded the city a Brownfields Assessment grant
in May 1999. The city has also leveraged approximately $28
million in redevelopment funding for restoration projects.
The transformation of former mine dumps created jobs
and housing opportunities for local citizens, and improved
the quality of life in the community.
Three former mine dumps were targeted for restoration -
the Oneida Addition, Fairview Addition, and Northern Heights
properties. Of these properties, the Oneida Addition has
seen the most redevelopment activity. Owned by USX, an iron-mining
subsidiary of U.S. Steel, the property was used during the
1950s as a dumpsite for mining by-products. After 1960, USX
leased the land for garden plots and recreational uses. In
1995, the city received the site through an exchange arranged
by the Iron Range Resources and Rehabilitation Board (IRRRB).
An initial assessment of the Oneida Addition site revealed
little contamination; the only cleanup required was removal
of a few empty barrels and other minor debris. Two developers
each purchased a portion of the property and have transformed
their respective sections into an Alzheimer’s patient
care unit and assisted/independent living facility, and an
office/showroom for construction equipment.
The Alzheimer’s unit has a capacity of 28 patients,
with another 14 units to be completed. The assisted/independent
living complex will have 115 assisted living apartments and
20 independent apartments. The creation of these facilities
represents a total of $12 million in cleanup and redevelopment
funds in addition to 115 permanent jobs when both projects
are complete. The development aided the elderly members of
the community, and allowed younger residents to purchase
the newly vacated houses.
The Northern Heights and the Fairview Addition properties
have been assessed and currently have commercial and residential
developments underway. The Northern Heights property will
house a golf country club, a relocated concrete company,
and residential units. The Fairview Addition is being developed
into single-family housing units.
The city of Virginia has created new residential space,
increased the tax base, and restored blighted areas to productive
use with the help of EPA Brownfields grants.
For more information, contact U.S. EPA Region 5 at 312-353-2513.
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Federal Grant to Finalize Environmental
Testing at Mariner’s
Marsh
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recently awarded
New York City a $270,000 Brownfields Assessment Grant to
continue the evaluation of the Mariner’s Marsh brownfields
site located on the north shore of Staten Island. Mariner’s
Marsh is one of the city’s five EPA demonstration sites,
and the only one to receive federal funding in fiscal year
2004. The grant will be used to conduct a full Phase II assessment
on 6 acres and Phase I and Phase II assessments on the remaining
101 acres.
Formerly an industrial site occupied by a steel manufacturer,
a shipbuilding concern, and a rail line, the site was plagued
by neglect and illegal dumping. The
grant is a key step in transforming this 107-acre brownfield
into a revitalized park and protected open space. The study
will be finished in 2006 and will allow the city to move
forward with plans for transforming 6 acres into a variety
of recreational uses including ball fields, playgrounds,
and soccer fields, while preserving the remaining 101 acres
as a natural area. The site contains numerous ponds as well
as wetland and upland habitats.
Assessment and cleanup of this site will help the city
further its goal of providing recreational opportunities
and natural areas in a community that greatly lacks open
space. Revitalization of the site is also expected to attract
visitors and small business interests to the area.
To learn more about this project, contact Edward Skyler
or Jordan Barowitz at 212-788-2958.
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