United States
Environmental
Protection Agency
Washington, D.C. 20460
Solid Waste
and Emergency
Response (5105)
EPA 500-F-01-047
June 2001
www.epa.gov/brownfields/
&EPA Brownfields Assessment
Demonstration Pilot
Ogden City, UT
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 $500,000 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 selected Ogden City for a Brownfields Pilot.
With the completion ofthe transcontinental railroad in
1869, Ogden City grew from a small frontier town into
a major industrial center. The railroads and associated
industries closed their Ogden operations in the 1970s
and 1980s, leaving behind high unemployment rates,
unskilled workers, and environmental pollution.
The Pilot will focus on a nine-block area of Ogden
City's Central Business District where vacant rail
yards, a former tannery, and large warehouses are
typical ofthe area's properties. In January 2001
Ogden City Corporation submitted a revised work
plan that expanded the scope as well as the area by
three 20-acre blocks and two 10-acre blocks within
the Central Business District. In the first priority
Pilot-targeted area, 80 percent of the property is
vacant and very few businesses are operating. A
large railroad property covers half of the Central
Business District. The poverty rate in the target area
is three times the city's average rate, and the
unemployment rate for Ogden City is 4.4 percent.
PILOT SNAPSHOT
Ogden City, Utah
Contacts:
City of Ogden
(801)629-8995
Date of Award: April 1997
Amount: $200,000
Profile: The Pilot targets a
nine-blockarea of Ogden City's
Central Business District.
U.S. EPA-Region8
(303)312-6019
Visit the EPA Region 8 Brownfields web site at:
http://www.epa.gov/region08/cross/brown/brownf.html
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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OBJECTIVES
LEVERAGING OTHER ACTIVITIES
Ogden City's objective is to revitalize the Central
Business District by removing barriers to economic
development and reclaiming potentially valuable
properties for mixed-use development. The city will
demonstrate the viability of redeveloping obsolete
facilities, attain the highest and best use of priority
properties, and regain the city's progressive image by
cleaning up gateway areas. The pilot will assist in
these objectives by conducting assessments in the
target area and developing cleanup plans for targeted
sites.
ACCOMPLISHMENTS AND ACTIVITIES
The Pilot has:
• Completed Phase I assessments of the 99 properties
within the target area;
• Formed a project steering committee consisting of
city officials to oversee the Pilot project;
• Conducted Phase II environmental assessments for
the first priority (Block 37) area; and
• Entered into a Voluntary Cleanup Agreement with
the Utah Department of Environmental Quality
Division of Environmental Response and
Remediation in January 2001.
The Pilot is:
• Working with the Department of Environmental
Quality and implementing the Voluntary Cleanup
Agreement;
• Continuing to seek input from community
representatives;
• Developing alist of suitable land uses forthe project
area based on the results of site assessments and
developing cleanup plans appropriate for these land
uses; and
• Identifying cost-effective financing solutions to
promote private or public/private redevelopment
efforts.
Experience with the Ogden City Pilot has been a
catalyst for related activities, including the following:
• The city spent $1,010,200 on the acquisition of the
Iron Works Property.
• The City Council approved the location of an
intermodal hub on the railyard property, aportion of
which is in the Pilot's priority area. Members of the
steering committee, along with other federal and
state agencies, were invited by Union Pacific to
review the results of an environmental assessment
performed on the rail yard, though no testing was
performed on the site within the Pilot's priority area.
The city plans to pursue additional federal funds for
the design and construction of the intermodal facility.
• On November 14, 2000 Ogden City entered into a
site agreement with the General Service
Administration (GSA) to develop the first priority
area (Block 37).
Brownfields Assessment Demonstration Pilot
June 2001
Ogden City, Utah
EPA 500-F-01-047
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