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                            Brownfields
                           Assessment
                            City of Duluth, MN
BACKGROUND

EPA has selected the City of Duluth for a Brownfields
Assessment Pilot. The city also was selected to receive
additional funding for assessments atbrownfields properties
to be used for greenspace purposes. Duluth (population
86,918) is located on Lake Superior in eastern Minnesota.
The target area for the Pilot is an old industrial district
along the lakefront that has many underused, outmoded,
and vacant  commercial  and industrial  properties.  The
industrial district has a few active manufacturing plants,
but many properties are vacant legacies of a once diverse
economy based  on packing houses,  scrap yards, grain
mills, lumberyards, industrial and commercial warehouses,
and railroad, shipping, and marshaling operations. The city
has identified two project sites for immediate assessment:
the 200-acre Rice's Point site, which  consists of former
industrial and railyard properties; and the Harborfront site,
which consists of 34 acres of publically  owned land in a
heavily industrialized area along the St.  Louis Bayfront.
The city also will inventory other sites using Pilot funding.

The target sites are in an older, industrial area of the city
with high unemployment and poverty rates, below average
housing, and numerous vacant properties. The target area
has an unemployment rate of about  25 percent; and a
minority population,  consisting  primarily of Native
Americans, that is more than double that of the city as a
whole. Forty-two percent of residents of the target  area
have incomes below the poverty level.

OBJECTIVES

Duluth's objective is to address the environmental
uncertainties associated with potential brownfields sites in
the city's waterfront district in order to expand industrial
redevelopment, restore greenspace, provide recreational
opportunities, and build affordable housing. The city will
   PILOT SNAPSHOT
    City of Duluth, Minnesota
Date of Announcement:
May 2002


Amount: $200,000


Greenspace: $50,000

Profile: The Pilottorgetesites
in the city's waterfront district,
which is an economically
disadvantoged area with many
underused andvacantindustrial
properties.
   Contacts:
   City of Duluth-Department of
   Planning and Development
   (218)733-6154
Regional Brownfields Team
U.S. EPA Region 5
(312)353-0123
        Visit the EPA Region 5 Brownfields web site at:
           http://www.epa.gov/R5Brownfields/

      For further information, including specific Pilot contacts,
    additional Pilot information, brownfields news and events, and
    publications and links, visit the EPA Brownfields web site at:
              www.epa.gov/brownfields

accomplish this objective in part by using Pilot funds to
identify brownfields sites in the project area, define the
contamination on selected sites, develop  cleanup plans,
and reach out to the public.

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ACCOMPLISHMENTS AND ACTIVITIES

Activities planned as part of this Pilot include:

• Performing an area-wide inventory of the Pilot area and
  integrating site information into a mapping system;

• Conducting  Phase I environmental  assessments on
  approximately ten sites;

• Conducting Phase II environmental assessments on an
  estimated five sites;

• Preparing cleanup action plans for about five sites; and

• Involving the communities  affected by the sites in
  decision making.

The cooperative agreement forthis Pilot has not yet been negotiated; therefore,
activities described in this fact sheet are subject to change.
                                                             Solid Waste            EPA 500-F-02-045
                                                             and Emergency         May 2002
                                                             Response (5105)       www.epa.gov/brownfields/

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