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| Brownfields Weekly |
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June 21, 2001 IN THIS ISSUE:
---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Brownfields Weekly welcomes your press releases and story ideas. If you have a story of interest to the community-at-large, write to the editors: Get listed on our Industry Links page! Send your link to the editors. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
EPA and National Park Service Cultivate Community-Based Groundwork Organizations Brownfields don't have to be brown, and a growing collaboration between EPA and the National Park Service is working to increase investment in them, by making them greener and better places to work and live. The two agencies recently signed the fourth installment of an agreement to support Brownfield Pilot communities to create community-based environmental improvement organizations part of a growing Groundwork USA network. Six Groundwork organizations have already been established in Yonkers, NY, Bridgeport, CT, Providence, RI, Somerville, MA, Lawrence, MA and Concord, NH. Three new communities will join the network as a result of the new agreement between the two federal agencies. The Groundwork USA program was inspired by the 40+ community Groundwork network in the United Kingdom. The EPA and the National Park Service intend to expand the program nationwide based on its initial success in the northeast. For additional information contact: Douglas Evans, Groundwork Program Manager for the National Park Service at (617) 223-5124 or e-mail douglas_evans@nps.gov. Visit Groundwork UK’s website for program information about the international network:
Join In the EPA Public Internet Dialogue From July 10 to July 20, 2001, EPA is convening an online public discussion on improving public involvement in EPA decision-making. The Dialogue will be based on the EPA's newly drafted Public Involvement Policy. Join interested citizens, representatives of industry, environmental groups, small businesses, states, local governments, tribes, and other groups to learn more about the draft policy and to share your thoughts and concerns regarding how EPA should implement this policy. To learn more about the Dialogue and to register to participate visit the Dialogue Web site at: For more information, send an e-mail to Patricia Bonner at U.S. EPA: Or Information Renaissance:
"Managing Environmental Challenges on Your Project: Tools Techniques and Resources" The California Center for Land Recycling (CCLR) is pleased to present this popular workshop designed to meet the needs of project managers involved in redeveloping environmentally impacted properties. This practical, interactive workshop provides you with the tools, techniques and resources required for on-time, on-budget project management. The material is presented in the context of a project manager's day-to-day reality of time, budget and risk management. Presenters at the workshop will include F. Russell Mechem, Program Director, CCLR, Earl James, Geologist, Erler & Kalinowski, Inc., Robert Doty, Attorney, Cox, Castle & Nicholson, LLP, and Robert Rosenfeld, Director of Environmental Risk Practices, Canon. Workshop fees include lunch and all workshop materials: Private Sector, $300; Government Sector, $175; Nonprofits, $75. CCLR is committed to helping community-based organizations by providing scholarships to reduce the cost of the workshop. Please inquire about available scholarships. Space is limited, so pre-registration is required. For more information or to register, call (415) 820-2080 or e-mail info@cclr.org. Or visit The California Center for Land Recycling on the Internet:
USTfields - A New EPA Initiative This past November, EPA awarded the first ten grants, $100,000 each, one in every EPA Region, in the new USTfields Initiative. Within the next six weeks, funds will become available for another forty grants, and proposed legislation could multiply the size of the new UST Fields effort. This initiative was created in large part to fill a gap in the growing EPA Brownfields effort. The official EPA definition of a brownfield does not specify or exclude properties with any specific types of contamination, nor do the Mayors and communities that have supported Brownfield efforts. However, the funding source for the current EPA Brownfield program is CERCLA (Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act - Also Known as Superfund) and that legislation specifically excludes petroleum contamination. Of the 450,000 brownfield sites EPA estimates exist throughout the United States, 100,000 to 200,000 are believed to be UST sites or have other petroleum contamination. The new USTfields Initiative, within EPA's Office of Underground Storage Tanks (OUST), follows the brownfields approach, but specifically targets properties such as the many former gasoline stations and others primarily contaminated with petroleum. As Steve McNeely, an OUST official noted, the USTfields grants are specifically designed to build upon the "lesson learned" from Brownfield, Superfund and RCRA clean-ups. As the grants are each for $100,000, they must be used in coordination with the proposed redevelopment as well as other funding sources. The OUST office specifically welcomes proposals that are "supplements" or attachments to Brownfields Assessment or Showcase projects, Superfund or RCRA cleanups. The relatively small dollar amount also allows rural and smaller communities to successfully apply to deal with the isolated gas station or other petroleum contaminated site. The USTfield grant process does differ from Brownfields and other EPA programs. USTfields grants are provided through states and passed along to municipalities, and may be used for actual remediation as well as assessment. The program has several distinct features that help it obtain support from key stakeholders. One stated criterion is the priority given to locations impacted by the MTBE additive to gasoline, addressing a relatively new problem resulting from past policy decisions. Most states have some form of Underground Storage Tank program (see Larry Schnapf, Environmental Liability: Managing Environmental Risks in Corporate Real Estate and Brownfield Transactions, for a summary of each of the fifty state programs). Putting the USTfields grants through the states should help ensure coordination with the various state efforts, making more certain that these funds do not replace dedicated petroleum funds, often funded by tax on gasoline sales. While the program was initiated under the Clinton administration, a non-regulatory environmental effort that helps resolve problems caused by the oil industry, has found sympathetic ears in the new administration as well as Congress. The legislation currently proposed in Senate bill 350 calls for $100 Million, which would be larger than the current Brownfields program. The USTField Initiative is being supported by a consortium of partners being led by the Northeast-Midwest Institute (NE-MW) which includes the National Association of Local Government Environmental Professionals (NALGEP), HAZMED, Inc. The consortium is co-authoring a report titled "Why LUST Site Reuse Matters" to be released in Summer 2001. Charles Bartsch of the NE-MW Institute, a policy expert who has been deeply involved in brownfields since the programs inception, believes that USTFields will fill an important program gap to aid brownfields redevelopment. USTfields program, while in its relative infancy, is poised for growth - given the need to address this most ubiquitous type of site in the brownfieds universe; as a result, it is worth watching. For additional information regarding the USTfields grant process and the upcoming funding round please go to:
Alaskan Tribe Resurrects Their Economy Through Brownfields Partnerships The Metlakatla Indian Community (MIC) on the Annette Islands Reserve is the only federal Indian reservation in the State of Alaska. Its 86,000 acres once supported timber and fishing industries for more than 100 years for the 2,430 enrolled members of the tribe, half of whom live on the reservation. MIC was designated by the EPA as a Showcase Community to promote sustainable economic development through the assessment, cleanup, and redevelopment of brownfields sites on the Metlakatla Peninsula. The industrial, commercial, and recreational uses planned for these sites will result in the protection of natural resources, and the strengthening of an economy weakened by underutilized facilities and unknown contamination. In 1940, the United States Army established an air base on 12,783 acres of land located six miles south of the Town of Metlakatla. Until that point, no development existed on the peninsula outside of the town or its immediate surroundings. The new construction brought runways, taxi routes, hangars, storage tanks and facilities, housing, docks, a hospital, and infrastructure improvements to water, sewage, and communications. These improvements also resulted in contamination. At the end of World War II, however, the installation was quickly vacated. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) leased the airport in 1948 for use as the Ketchikan Airport. Control shifted to the U.S. Coast Guard (USCG) in 1956, but by 1973 the airport had been moved to a new facility closer to Ketchikan, and all remaining airport support activity ceased in 1977. A 1996 preliminary assessment of the Metlakatla Peninsula identified more than 80 sites associated with former federal facilities; 72 of these have environmental concerns, including leaking drums, asbestos, lead, pesticides, polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), chemical and oil spills, and leaking above- and underground storage tanks. As the result of a devastating fishing season and the federal shutdown of timber harvesting in 1995, the MIC Council declared its community an “economic disaster area” in 1997. MIC is targeting three priority brownfields: the Smuggler Cove Radio Relay site, which is currently being used as a community-owned power utility facility; a former power plant, which is currently abandoned; and the main hangar building at the airport, which is currently being used as a forest products facility. The Showcase Community partnership effort will facilitate environmental cleanup and economic expansion at the sites currently in use and promote cleanup and reuse at the abandoned power plant. MIC has formed partnerships with federal, state, and local entities to address brownfields issues. Partnerships include:
The Metlakatla Indian Community plans to use the Showcase Community designation to create an integrated brownfields plan with substantial federal partner involvement. Completion of planning and cleanup efforts at the three priority sites will spur their redevelopment and/or expanded use, resulting in 10 to 20 new jobs. In addition, the reuse of these sites will provide an economic shift for a community that has been solely dependent on natural resources for its survival. MIC further hopes to promote tribal self-governance and determination and serve as a model for other tribal communities addressing similar environmental and economic transition issues. |