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May 23, 2002 THIS WEEK:
---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Brownfields Weekly welcomes your organization's press releases, industry conference announcements, and brownfields project updates. Contact the Editors: Editors@Brownfields.com. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- $14.6 Million in Grants Awarded for
80 Community Brownfields BRISTOL, Pennsylvania - EPA Administrator Christie Whitman announced May 20 Brownfields grants totalling $14.6 million to assess the contamination of abandoned properties in 80 communities around the nation. At an event with Congressman Jim Greenwood at the Riverfront North Property in Bucks County, Whitman said, "Reclaiming America's brownfields properties is an effective way to help revitalize and reinvigorate our nation's blighted neighborhoods while at the same time preventing urban sprawl." "Brownfields reclamation is one of the great environmental success stories of the past decade," Whitman continued. "But the story is hardly over. EPA and its partners in every state of the union are ready to write the next chapter in the brownfields story. Given the commitment of this Administration, I can guarantee you that story will have a very happy ending." Monday's grants were awarded under EPA's Brownfields Assessment Demonstration Pilot program. Around the country, 38 communities received funding totaling $7.95 million for new Assessment Demonstration Pilots that fund the assessment of Brownfields properties. The assessment pilots are designed to empower states, cities, towns, counties and tribes to work together in a timely manner to assess and encourage cleanup of Brownfields properties in order to promote their sustainable reuse. In addition, 42 communities received supplemental funding totaling $6.65 million to continue or expand their existing Brownfields program. Since its inception, EPA's Brownfields Program has contributed over $280 million in pilots and grants to spur assessment, cleanup and redevelopment at brownfields sites. Click
here for a list of the 38 new Brownfields Assessment Demonstration Pilots. Attend the 2002 Land Renewal Network
Conference: June 4-5 The 2002 Land Renewal Network Conference is a forum for industry and others to convene, discuss and obtain information on RCRA, CERCLA, and Brownfields policies and program developments, with a special emphasis on reuse of contaminated properties. It will also provide an opportunity for industry and government agencies to collaborate and explore the development of new, or the enhancement of existing, policies affecting waste management and the cleanup and reuse of contaminated properties. Many distinguished speakers are participating in the June conference, including Marianne Horinko, Assistant Administrator for EPA's Office of Solid Waste and Emergency Response; Michael Cook, Director of the Office of Emergency and Remedial Response (Superfund); Elizabeth Cotsworth, Director of the Office of Solid Waste (RCRA); Steve Luftig, EPA's Senior Advisor on Land Reuse, as well as many others representing federal, state, and local governments and private industry. An updated conference agenda and registration information are below in PDF file format (to open PDFs, you'll need Acrobat Reader). For more information or to register, contact Laura Sneeringer at (703) 284-9484. We look forward to seeing you at the conference! Click
here for the 2002 Land Renewal Conference agenda. Announcing Greyfields 2002 - June
24-26 Almost everyone has heard of Brownfields and Greenfields, but few have heard of Greyfields. Greyfields are old, obsolete, and non-profitable retail and commercial sites that appear in cities and suburbs throughout the country. Outclassed by newer, more consumer friendly malls and shopping centers, Greyfields have fallen into disrepair and fail to generate the revenue to justify their continued use. You are cordially invited to the Greyfields 2002: "Community Renewal & Redevelopment Through Adaptive Reuse" to learn from public and private leaders how to develop, design, and enhance urban redevelopment projects through the concepts of mixed use development and adaptive reuse. As state and local governments continue to fight against sprawl and urban degradation, Greyfield redevelopment can be a powerful tool in improving the economic outlook, environmental health, and social quality of your community. For a complete agenda, more information, and registration for Greyfields 2002, please contact James Lewis at (703) 519-6270 or email lewis@performanceweb.org. Environmental Insurance Contains Fort
Gordon Cleanup Costs FORT GORDON, Georgia - To contain the cost of a regulatory cleanup at Georgia's Fort Gordon, an environmental insurance program is providing an essential financial cushion in an innovative, fixed-cost remediation agreement. XL Environmental, Inc. designed the program exclusively for ARCADIS, a global environmental service provider, and its Guaranteed Fixed Price for Closure Remediation Program (GRiP). ARCADIS was awarded a $19.4 million contract to provide services under its GRiP* program in the cleanup of 26 solid waste management units, including landfills, former maintenance shops, waste storage and disposal areas and drainage structures, scheduled for closure at Fort Gordon. This is the first time that the GRiP program is being used at an active military base. The U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command initiated this pilot project to evaluate a new government contract approach to environmental cleanup. For a fixed price, ARCADIS' program provides all investigation, remediation, and regulatory services or oversight that will be necessary in the facilities' closure. XL Environmental designed the GRiP Stop Loss insurance program to offer ARCADIS protection against potential cost overruns that may occur in the process. XL Environmental has created numerous customized insurance programs for large-scale environmental remediation and redevelopment projects, especially at military bases closed or realigned. According to Bob Hallenbeck, senior vice president of government affairs for XL Environmental, "For all involved, such insurance coverage offers assurance that funding will be there to keep the project moving along, even if unexpected costs arise," adding, "Both the public and private sectors are finding the guaranteed, fixed-price remediation approach advantageous in its potential time and cost savings." The Army benefits from the program because the coverage protects against additional cleanup expenses that ARCADIS may incur. It also assures that the cleanup will not be delayed from future contamination discoveries. New England Brightfields Project Moves
Ahead The City of Brockton's Green Power Team announced May 7th the completion of two studies examining the technical and financial feasibility of a Brightfield Project to be built on a local brownfield. The proposed Brockton Brightfield is located on the former Brockton Gas Works site. Based on a site survey, roughly 10 acres of land are available to build a 1 MW photovoltaic (PV) system. PV power silenty converts sunlight into direct current electricity, producing no emmissions in the process. The annual production of a 1 MW solar brightfield would produce enough electricity to power 200 homes for a year. Factors considered in the study include the location of the water table, tree locations, easment restrictions, availability of power transmission lines, and soil removal restrictions. Financial feasibility models were also done to explore both non-profit and for-profit management options for the Brockton PV system. Based on feedback from stakeholders, the city's Brightfields team will complete a venture option study to determine the final operating and management structures. Once financing is decided and in place, the PV system will be constructed in two .5 MW phases, the first in 2003 and second in 2004. In November 2001, Brockton received a $30,000 grant from the Department of Energy's Brightfields program, which supports the redevelopment of brownfields using solar energy technologies. The city also held a public meeting about the proposed project last fall that found strong community support. The proposed Brightfield would be the largest in the Northeast United States. For more information on Brockton's Brightfields project, contact Lori Colombo at (508) 895-9129 or email lrcolombo@aol.com. For more on Brightfields, visit the Department of Energy's Brightfields program. |