United States
                       Environmental
                       Protection Agency
                       Washington, D.C. 20460
                          Solid Waste
                          and Emergency
                          Response (5101)
EPA 500-F-97-020
May 1997
  xvEPA
National
Assessment  Pilot
                                              Lima,  OH
  Outreach and Special Projects Staff (5101)
                                         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. Between 1995 and 1996, EPA funded 76 National and Regional Brownfields
Assessment Pilots, at up to $200,000 each, to support creative two-year explorations and demonstrations of brownfields
solutions. EPAis funding morethan 27 Pilots in 1997. The Pilots 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 the City of Lima for a Brownfields
  Pilot. The project area includes an  abandoned
  industrial site that is part of a planned 200-acre
  industrial park. Liinahas been hard-hit by industrial
  closings and defense-downsizing in the 1970s and
  1980s,  employment in the  industrial park has
  decreased from 8,800 to 550. Other brownfields
  impacts include a loss of supportive  services to
  nearby residences,  systematic  institutional
  disinvestment (lenders, small businesses), increases
  in vacancy rates, and increased crime.

  OBJECTIVES

  Lima's brownfields effort is aimed at transforming
  the  industrial park into a thriving, modernized
  industrial community that will provide new job
  potential. The focus of the Pilot is on the former
  Lima Locomotive works, an abandoned 65-acre
  industrial facility.  The City views successful
  redevelopment of this site as key to their broader
  redevelopment efforts.
                          PILOT SNAPSHOT
                              Lima, Ohio
                                             Date of Award:
                                             September 1996

                                             Amount: $200,000
  Site Profile: The Pilot
  targets the Lima
  Locomotive works, an
  abandoned 65-acre
  industrial facility. The
  abandoned facility is part
  of a planned 200-acre
  industrial park.
                         Contacts:

                         Gary Sheely
                         Lima Utilities Department
                         (419)228-5462
   Andy Warren
   U.S. EPA-Region 5
   (312)353-5485
   warren.andrew@
   epamail.epa.gov
                                                       Visit the EPA Brownfields Website at:
                                                       http://www.epa.gov/brownfields

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ACCOMPLISHMENTS AND ACTIVITIES

The Pilot is:

• Conducting Phase I site assessments and planning at
 the former Lima Locomotive facility;

• Conducting a brownfields blight survey within the
 City to identify  other  potential properties for
 redevelopment;

• Implementing outreach activities in the community
 to provide information on site assessment and gain
 community input on planning for the  industrial
 park;

• Establishing an independent management board,
 including  community representatives to oversee
 industrial park revitalization; and

• Crafting legal agreements delineating partnership
 terms and financial arrangements for the assessment,
 remediation, and development of the industrial park.

LEVERAGING OTHER ACTIVITIES

Experience with the Lima Pilot has been a catalyst for
related activities including the following.

• Working  with a local  university to study the
 effectiveness of phyto-remediation, the use of trees
 and shrubs to reduce concentrations of contaminants
 in soil.

•Working  with  the Governor's  Economic
 Development Office to enhance job creation with
 tax incentives.

• Working  with Ohio  State  agencies that  offer
 economic development assistance to municipalities
 engaged in redevelopment activities.

• Requiring industrial park lease terms to encourage
 the hiring of local residents.

• Negotiation of an agreementwith the facility property
 owner for entry of the facility into the Ohio voluntary
 cleanup program.
 National Brownfields Assessment Pilot                                                       Lima, Ohio
 May 1997                                                                      EPA 500-F-97-020

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