United States Environmental Protection Agency Washington, D.C. 20460 Solid Waste and Emergency Response (5101) EPA 500-F-00-031 April 2000 www.epa.gov/brownfields/ <&EPA Brownfields Supplemental Assistance Lynn, 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 $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 awarded the City ofLynn supplemental assistance for its Brownfields Assessment Demonstration Pilot. The City ofLynn (population 81,245) is a coastal community and an old New England manufacturing center. The city will continue its partnership with the Conservation Law Foundation to target priority brownfields. In addition, the supplemental assistance will allow expansion beyond targeting small, scattered sites throughout the community to focus on larger properties and the issues related to corporate "mothballing" of large tracts of land—10 to 30 acres in Lynn's case—that have real or perceived environmental issues. Mothballed properties exist where large corporate land owners have little intention to return these properties to productive reuse; opting instead to avoid potential environmental issues by letting the land sit idle. To these ends, the city will target two properties—the Tapley building, apriority redevelopmentproject, and the TDC waterfront landfill site, a mothballed site abandoned for more than two decades due to the specter of environmental contamination. The city acquired the Tapley building through tax foreclosure. This 16,000-square-foot space with an abandoned five-story building is located in the city's industrial PILOT SNAPSHOT Lynn, Massachusetts Date of Announcement: March 2000 Amount: $150,000 Profile: The Pilot targets two properties: the Tapley building, an abandoned five-storybuilding located in an industrial area; and the TDC waterfront landfill, Massachusetts' largest piece of vacant waterfront property. Contacts: Hal McGaughey Regional Brownfields Team EDIC/Lynn U.S. EPA-Region 1 City of Lynn (617)918-1209 (617)598-4000 Visit the EPA Region 1 Brownfields web site at: http://www.epa.gov/region01/remed/brnfld/ 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: http://www.epa.gov/brownfields/ ------- area. The site has been used for industrial purposes (e.g., shoe manufacturing, machine shop operations) since the mid-1800s. The TDC landfill and adjacent properties comprise a 22-acre tract of land that is suspected to have caused off-site contamination. The property is the largest vacant piece of waterfront property in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. OBJECTIVES AND PLANNED ACTIVITIES Lynn's objective is to pursue two parallel tracks to promote the economic resurgence of the community and to foster an active and vibrant waterfront. The city will continue successful brownfields redevelopment at a new priority site—the Tapley building. The city will conduct a subsurface site assessment and develop a cleanup action plan for the Tapley property. The city will also tackle the more pervasive issue of mothballed properties with assessment of the TDC waterfront landfill, through which the city seeks to reverse the course of abandonment and act as a model to return such sites to productive use. To accomplish these objectives, the Pilot plans to: • Develop and implement a community outreach plan to keep nearby residents involved in the assessment and cleanup of the Tapley building; • Conduct a Phase II environmental assessment and develop a risk assessment report and cleanup cost estimate for the Tapley building; • Develop and implement a community outreach plan to keep nearby residents involved in the assessment and cleanup of the TDC waterfront landfill; • Conduct a Phase II environmental assessment at the TDC waterfront landfill to determine the nature and extent of the off-site contamination; and • Develop a risk assessment report and a cleanup cost estimate for the TDC waterfront landfill; The cooperative agreement for this Pilot has not yet been negotiated; therefore, activities described in this fact sheet are subject to change. Brownfields Supplemental Assistance Lynn, Massachusetts April 2000 EPA 500-F-00-031 ------- |