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                            Assessment Pi
                            City of Columbus,  GA
BACKGROUND

EPA has selected the City of Columbus for a Brownfields
Assessment Pilot. Columbus (population 196,966) islocated
in west central Georgia, approximately 100 miles southwest
of Atlanta. The city has targeted its Enterprise Zone (EZ)
for this Pilot. Most of the  properties available  for
redevelopment in the EZ contain old, vacant industrial,
commercial, ormanufacturing facilities that once supported
operations such as dry cleaning, machinery manufacturing,
a railroad staging lot, wood treatment, and agrochemical
formulation. Many of these properties are interspersed
with residential neighborhoods. No comprehensive land
use record exists  for this distressed area, which  has
suffered from industrial closures and blight. Businesses
and lenders have shunned the EZ industrial corridor in
favor  of outlying greenfields because of the corridor's
degraded appearance, obsolete transportation system,
and unknown environmental problems.

Nearly 44,000 residents in the  Pilot area have been
affected by the industrial decline in their neighborhood.
The unemployment rate in the predominately minority
neighborhoods in and bordering the EZ is nearly 60 percent
higher than the citywide average,  and the number of
residents living in poverty is about 45 percent higher than
the citywide average. Forty-eight percent of the residents
living in the target area are minorities.

OBJECTIVES

The city' s long-term obj ective is to facilitate redevelopment
in the EZ, thereby creating employment opportunities,
strengthening small businesses, enhancing property values,
and improving the health and safety of EZ residents. To
accomplish this objective, the Pilot will expand existing
community  involvement approaches in  the EZ to
encompass brownfields objectives, select target sites,
perform environmental  site assessments,  and prepare
cleanup plans for these sites.
   PILOT SNAPSHOT
Date of Announcement:
May 2002

Amount: $200,000

Profile: ThePilottargetsformer
industrial properties in the city's
Enterprise Zone, one of the city's
most economically distressed
residential and industrial areas.
    City of Columbus,
    Georgia
   Contacts:
   Columbus  Consolidated
   Government
   (706)653-4712
Regional Brownfields Team
U.S. EPA Region 4
(404)562-8661
        Visit the EPA Region 4 Brownfields web site at:
       http://www.epa.gov/region4/waste/bf/index.htm

      For furtherinformation, 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
ACCOMPLISHMENTS AND ACTIVITIES

Activities planned as part of this Pilot include:
• Reviewing historical and environmental records on
  industrial development in the EZ;

• Conducting Phase I and II environmental assessments
  on targeted properties;

• Assessing cleanup options on specific sites;

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• Integrating  site-specific data into the city's existing
  geographic information system; and

• Enhancing EZ community involvement to meet the
  needs of the brownfields project.

The cooperative agreement forthis Pilot has notyetbeen negotiated; therefore,
activities described in this fact sheet are subject to change.
                                                                Solid Waste             EPA 500-F-02-057
                                                                and Emergency         May 2002
                                                                Response (5105)       www.epa.gov/brownfields/

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