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/
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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
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