IN
THIS ISSUE:
Wellston
Returns Properties to Residential Reuse
Wellston, Missouri,
a small suburb north of St. Louis, is enjoying recent success
in restoring brownfields for residential reuse. In a community
frustrated with a multitude of boarded-up abandoned houses,
derelict, closed-down businesses and littered streets, a
small Habitat for Humanity neighborhood has taken root. With
the help of a $200,000 EPA Brownfields Assessment Demonstration
Grant and a $100,000 Supplemental Assistance Grant, the city
of Wellston, and the St. Louis County Economic Council (CEC),
leveraged nearly $2 million in redevelopment funding through
a partnership with Habitat for Humanity-St. Louis.
Beginning as a manufacturing center, many Wellston employers
fled or closed through the mid-1900s. The hardest blow to
Wellston came with the closing of a large factory and a foundry
in 1983 that left major brownfields tracts throughout Wellston.
As employers left, most of the community followed, with a
60 percent decline in population. Since 1999, the CEC identified
nearly 400 abandoned, tax-delinquent publicly owned properties.
Determined to return these properties to productive reuse,
the CEC and the city of Wellston formed the Wellston Redevelopment
Corporation (WRC) to redevelop these properties for residential
and commercial uses. The CEC identified an initial 38-abandoned
properties and performed environmental assessments. No cleanup
was required.
In 2001, as Wellston was assessing these lots, Habitat
for Humanity-St. Louis was looking for a community to host
its 15 th Anniversary “Blitz Build,” building
15 homes for 15 families in 15 days. Recognizing their complimenting
goals, the city of Wellston and Habitat for Humanity formed
a partnership to transform 12 brownfields into new living
space. Habitat for Humanity provided $927,000 in redevelopment
funding to construct 15 single-family houses on 12 properties.
In 2002, Habitat built 12 additional homes using $978,000
in Habitat funding.
With plans to construct up to 13 additional Habitat homes,
and the arrival of new families into the neighborhood, the
city discovered a need for recreational greenspace. A former
parking lot and service station property was cleaned up and
transformed into a 2.5-acre park. The park features a ball
field, playground, basketball court, concession stand, and
walking paths. The CEC leveraged a $300,000 Regional Empowerment
Zone grant to fund cleanup and park design costs and a $106,000
Recreational Park District grant to assist in park design.
The park will be a part of a connected greenway system being
developed throughout the metropolitan region.
Wellston, once overlooked, is fast becoming a place to
call home. Investment in 27 affordable houses and a neighborhood
park has given the community a sense of hope and optimism
not experienced in recent decades.
For more information about the project, contact Kerry Herndon,
EPA Region 7, at 913-551-7286.
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Drive-In Property Redeveloped as Elementary
School in Kansas
In October 2001, the Coffeyville School District USD 445
submitted an application to the Kansas Department of Health
and Environment (KDHE) to perform a Brownfields Targeted
Assessment (BTA) of city-owned property that had been formerly
used as a drive-in theater. The property was proposed as
the location of a new community-wide elementary school. Since
the former drive-in property was located adjacent to the
Sherwin-Williams facility, a RCRA Corrective Action site,
there was some concern regarding the potential impacts from
the Sherwin-Williams site. During the planning stages for
the new school, the school district approached KDHE, EPA,
and Sherwin-Williams to explore the possibility of building
a new school within the contaminated area outside of the
facility property and utilizing a portion of Sherwin-Williams'
property for parking and recreational purposes for the school.
KDHE performed a combined Phase I and Phase II environmental
assessment. Assessment results indicated localized lead impacts
slightly above the KDHE residential standard. Soil removal,
off-site disposal, and site restoration activities occurred
in late 2002. KDHE, EPA, Coffeyville School district, Sherwin-Williams,
and the city of Coffeyville worked together to resolve the
environmental issues related to the lead soil contamination.
Sherwin-Williams completed remediation of the drive-in property
prior to construction activities. Just east of the drive-in
property, Sherwin-Williams placed an engineered cap over
approximately 7 acres of their facility creating a recreational
area to be used by the school district and the city.
The Community Elementary School opened in August 2004. The
144,800 square foot facility consists of a competition gym,
multi-purpose cafeteria, district central kitchen, media
center, and classrooms for up to 950 students. The Sherwin-Williams Park collaboration
provides additional school parking/hard surface play area,
two Little League baseball fields, three soccer fields, and
a high school practice soccer field.
The Community Elementary School is the first and only school
constructed using city (community) sales tax and the only
school built using major community funding to match state
aid from the Kansas community and local district community
funding.
For more information contact Richard Bean at rbean@kdhe.state.ks.us.
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Dry Cleaners Facility Remediation Helps
Revitalize Jackson, MS
The Fabra Care Master Dry Cleaners facility is located
in Westland Plaza near Provine High School in Jackson, Mississippi.
Westland Plaza serves as a key component to the community
and houses a bank, grocery store, restaurant, and several
retail outlets. The Westland Station Post Office is also
located in this area. When businesses began to leave the
community, the former dry cleaner was stigmatized as contaminated
and a liability.
In an effort to revitalize the downtown area, Westland Plaza
Associates, L.P., in coordination with the city of Jackson,
began work on upgrading facilities at Westland Plaza. This
citywide effort to revitalize the downtown area involved
public and private parties working together to improve the
quality of life of the city residents. Due to the nature
of the dry cleaning operation, an environmental assessment
was conducted. Assessment of the property found localized
PCE contamination beneath the foundation of the building
and parking lot.
The property was remediated by maintaining the foundation(s)
of the existing structures to ensure on-site workers are
not exposed to contaminated media, and by restricting the
installation of any wells at the site. Activities at the
site that create exposure to contaminated media were restricted,
and the site is limited to commercial or industrial use only.
Institutional controls were implemented to ensure future
protection.
The assessment and remediation of the Fabra Care Master
Dry Cleaners protected property values and ensured the community's
economic viability. Westland Plaza Associates, L.P. and Fabra
Care Master Dry Cleaners have liability protection and continue
to operate the facility with few restrictions. The lending
institution and other legal and equitable surface interest
owners are also afforded the liability protection.
Perhaps the most important benefit of the remediation, however,
is the preservation of the community itself, since the stigma
associated with the contamination was effectively removed.
To learn more about this brownfield project, contact Jere "Trey" Hess
at the Mississippi Dept. of Environmental Quality at 601-961-5654,
or visit http://www.deq.state.ms.us.
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Bridgeport's Restored Gateway Leads
to New Impression
By
the year 1990, Bridgeport, Connecticut had become one of
the poorest, yet most highly taxed, cities in the nation.
Nowhere in the city was this economic decay more evident
than at the former Jenkins Valve site, located directly at
Bridgeport's main gateway. Visitors coming in via the city's
ferry, from Amtrak and Metro-North Railroad cars arriving
at Bridgeport's train terminal, and in vehicles buzzing overhead
on the Interstate 95 overpass were all subjected to a clear
view of the abandoned, run-down property.
Using a portion of the $200,000 grant provided to the city
in August 1994 as part of EPA's Brownfields Pilot Initiative,
a site evaluation was performed on the Jenkins Valve property.
Based on this evaluation, the Zurich Re Corporation stepped
in and invested $11 million to clean up and redevelop the
site. An additional $1 million was provided by Bridgeport,
and $2 million by the State of Connecticut.
This long-idle property is now home to a new 5,500-seat
ballpark, and will eventually include an indoor ice-skating
rink and a new museum. The ballpark project alone created
361 jobs, 68 of which are permanent. The collaboration and
partnership of multiple federal agencies have allowed Bridgeport's
cleanup and redevelopment efforts to progress well beyond
the assessment and planning stages enabled by EPA's initial
brownfields grant. John Podgurski, Brownfields Coordinator
for EPA Region 1, reports that the city of Bridgeport has
received over 200 inquiries about this pilot from developers
and other investors since the program began. Visitors to
Bridgeport greeted by a view of the former Jenkins Valve
property can now testify to the success of the city's efforts.
For more information about the Bridgeport Brownfields Pilot,
contact John Podgurski at 617-573-9681. For site photos,
visit http://www.epa.gov/brownfields/html-doc/ss_brdgp.htm.
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New Brownfields
Research Web Site Available
Source:
Andrew Savagian, Brownfields Outreach Specialist, Wisconsin
Department of Natural Resources
People interested in the latest research on efforts to clean
up and restore contaminated urban sites - often referred
to as brownfields - can access information through a new
comprehensive Web site on the Internet.
The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources and the University
of Wisconsin-Milwaukee's Brownfields Research Consortium
teamed up to create one of the nation's first comprehensive
Web sites for brownfields research.
State and local government officials, researchers, developers,
anyone interested in brownfields can now access the most
recent research available thanks to this Web site.
The brownfields research bibliography can be accessed at http://www.uwm.edu/MilwaukeeIdea/CEO/brownfields/bibliography/index.html.
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