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 plans to fund at least fifty Brownfields Pilots in 1995 and 1996, at up to $200,000 each, to support creative two-year explorations and demonstrations of brownfields solutions The Pilots 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. United Slates Office of Publication: XXXX.X-XXXX Environmental Protection Solid Waste and Agency Emergency Response January 1996 dEPA Brownfields Pilot - Emeryville, CA Office of Outreach and Special Projects (5101) Quick Reference Fact Sheet OVERVIEW EPA has selected the City of Emeryville for a Brownfields Pilot. Historically, heavy industry was the predominant land use in the City, but the majority of these companies left the area in the 1970s. Currently, 234 acres are vacant or under-used, and 213 acres are known to have soil and groundwater contamination. Nearly half of the City's citizens are low-income, and more than half are minorities. Most the the City's poor live in neighborhoods bordered by brownfields. Although there is demand for residential and commercial development, the cost and risk associated with brownfields have impeded their redevelopment. The result for the City over the past five years has been a loss of $13.3 million in tax revenues and 450 jobs. OBJECTIVES - The ultimate goal of Emeryville's brownfields effort is to encourage residential and commercial development by building stakeholder confidence in a risk management-based model for brownfields redevelopment. The model will incorporate an emerging State of California regulatory policy of using an area-wide rather than a parcel-by-parcel approach to environmental cleanups. ACTIVITIES Activities planned as part of this pilot include: • Compiling hydrogeologic, soil, and groundwater information from available sources; • Conducting hydrogeologic testing and soil and groundwater sampling to provide data not available from other sources; • Preparing a geographical information sys- tem model that incorporates environmen- tal, economic, land use, and zoning infor- mation; • Conveningabroad-basedCommunityTask Force to serve as a forum for'community participation in decisionmaking related to brownfields redevelopment; • Conducting fate and transport modeling and risk assessment; • Developing a Mitigation/Rislc Management Plan; and • Seeking appropriate regulatory approval. ------- The cooperative agreement for this pilot has not yet been negotiated; therefore, activities described in this fact sheet are subject to change. CONTACTS Dubbi Kalian U.S. EPA - Region 9 (415) 744-H2fc«ai52. Ignacio Dayrit Emeryville Redevelopment Agency (510) 596-4350 c/EPA United States Environmental Protection Agency (5202 G) Washington, DC 20460 Official Business Penalty for Private Use $300 ------- |