United States
Environmental
Protection Agency
Washington, D.C. 20460
Solid Waste
and Emergency
Response (5101)
EPA 500-F-00-270
December 2000
www.epa.gov/brownfields/
SEPA Brownfields Job Training
and Development
Demonstration Pilot
Boston Connects People to Economic Opportunity, Inc.,
Boston, MA
Outreach and Special Projects Staff (5105)
Quick Reference Fact Sheet
EPA's Brownfields Economic Redevelopment Initiative is designed to empower states, communities, and other
stakeholders in economic redevelopment to work together in a timely manner to prevent, assess, safely clean up, and
sustainably reuse brownfields. A brownfield is a site, or portion thereof, that has actual or perceived contamination and
an active potential for redevelopment or reuse. EPA is funding: assessment demonstration pilot programs (each funded
up to $200,000 over two years), to assess brownfields sites and to test cleanup and redevelopment models; job training
pilot programs (each funded up to $200,000 over two years), to provide training for residents of communities affected
by brownfields to facilitate cleanup of brownfields sites and prepare trainees for future employment in the environmental
field; and, cleanup revolving loan fund programs (each funded up to $1,000,000 over five years) to capitalize loan funds
to make loans for the environmental cleanup of brownfields. These pilot programs are intended to provide EPA, states,
tribes, municipalities, and communities with useful information and strategies as they continue to seek new methods
to promote a unified approach to site assessment, environmental cleanup, and redevelopment.
BACKGROUND
EPA has selected Boston Connects People to
Economic Opportunity, Inc. (BCI) for a Brownfields
Job Training and Development Demonstration Project.
BCI's assessment pilot partner is the City of Boston.
The City also has received a Brownfields Cleanup
Revolving Loan Fund Pilot. The Brownfields
Assessment Pilot targets the City's federal
Empowerment Zone (population 57,640). Three-
quarters of the diverse Empowerment Zone population
are minoritie s (African American, Hispanic, and Asian).
The poverty rate in the Empowerment Zone is nearly
36% and the unemployment rate exceeds 16%.
The Job Training Pilot also will focus on Boston's
Empowerment Zone. As industries have been phased
out of the city and moved to suburban greenfields,
parts of Boston have been left littered with abandoned
and vacant properties. The State of Massachusetts
has identified 455 brownfields within Empowerment
Zone neighborhoods of Boston. There is a need for
providing training to Empowerment Zone residents
that will enable them to take advantage of employment
opportunities created by ongoing and planned
redevelopment projects at brownfields sites in their
neighborhoods.
PILOT SNAPSHOT
Boston, Massachusetts
Date of Announcement:
December 2000
Amount: $200,000
Profile: The Pilot will train 90
participants as environmental
technicians. Students will be
recruited from neighborhoods
within Boston's Empowerment
Zone, within which active and
projected brownfields cleanup
and redevelopment projects
have created a strong demand
forenvironmental technicians.
Contacts:
Boston Connects People to
Economic Opportunity, Inc.
(617)918-5225
Regional Brownfields Team
U.S. EPA - Region 1
(617)918-1210
Visit the EPA Region 1 Brownfields web site at:
http://www.epa.gov/region01/remed/brnfld/
Forfurther information, including specific Pilot contacts,
additional Pilot information, brownfields news and events, and
publications and links, visit the EPA Brownfields web site at:
http://www.epa.gov/brownfields/
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TRAINING OBJECTIVES
BCI plans to train 90 participants, achieve an 85%
placement rate, and support career placement of
graduates fortwo years afterthe training is completed.
Participants will be recruited from the Empowerment
Zone. The 12-week Pilottraining program will consist
of introduction to environmental science, introduction
to brownfields remediation, introduction to surveying,
environmental field sampling, workplace safety and
tools training, lead and asbestos abatement,
HAZWOPER, wastewater treatment, alternative
remediation, alternative technologies, clean
technologies, environmental management systems,
and toxic use reduction, including training in the use of
innovative assessment and remediation technologies.
B CF s training efforts will be supported by organizations
such as the Boston Public Health Commission, Boston
Redevelopment Authority, the New England
Consortium, Suffolk County House of Correction,
Roxbury Community College, STRIVE-Boston
Employment Service, and Women in the Building
Trades. Local developers and remediation firms that
are actively involved in major brownfields
redevelopment projects have committed to hiring
graduates. In addition, developers must honor first-
source hiring agreements as a condition of
Empowerment Zone bond financing.
ACTIVITIES
Activities planned as part of this Pilot include:
• Conducting outreach to recruit residents from
Boston's Empowerment Zone;
• Conducting environmental technician training,
including courses in the use of innovative assessment
and cleanup technologies; and
• Supporting career placement of students for two
years after the job training is completed.
The cooperative agreement for this Pilot has not yet been negotiated;
therefore, activities described in this fact sheet are subject to change.
Brownfields Job Training and Development Demonstration Pilot
December2000
Boston Connects People to Economic Opportunity, Inc.,
Boston, Massachusetts
EPA500-F-00-270
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