United States
                       Environmental
                       Protection Agency
                       Washington, D.C. 20460
 Solid Waste
 and Emergency
 Response (5101)
EPA 500-F-97-054
May 1997

                       Regional   Brownfields
                       Assessment  Pilot
                                                   East St. Louis, IL
  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 Region 5 selected the Metro-East St. Louis
  community  governments  for a  Regional
  Brownfields  Pilot. The  communities include
  Alorton, Centreville, and East St. Louis, with a
  combined population of over 50,000. The region
  was an industrial and transportation center that
  began to decline starting in the 1930's due to a
  number  of factors, including high crime, low
  productivity, flood plain constraints, poor public
  image, deterioration of industrial facilities, and
  changes in  waste  disposal  regulation.
  Intercommunity competition, deterioration of the
  existing industrial infrastructure, and a long-term
  pattern of neglect has constrained development in
  the area.

  OBJECTIVES

  East St. Louis has initiated reindustrialization of a
  former Alcoa Aluminum  site on 220 acres in a
  predominantly minority community in the metro
  area. The focus of the East St. Louis Pilot is on
  developing a  sustainable secondary  materials
  manufacturing district on the former Alcoa site.
  The site is in an economically depressed area,
  which has a  90% minority population, a 24%
  unemployment rate, andaloss of 10,000 jobs in the
  last three decades. The Pilot will develop and test
 PILOT SNAPSHOT
 East St. Louis, Illinois
Contacts:

Michael Cordes
City of East St. Louis
(618)482-6634
                    Date of Award:
                    September 1996

                    Amount: $200,000

                    Site Profile: The Pilot
                    targets the 220-acre
                    former Alcoa Aluminum
                    site that is located in a
                    predominantly minority
                    community in the metro
                    area.
    Keary Cragan
    U.S. EPA-Region 5
    (312)353-5669
    cragan.keary@
    epamail.epa.gov
       Visit the EPA Brownfields Website at:
       http://www.epa.gov/brownfields

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innovative remediation technologies forthe clean-up
of the Alcoa site, recovering gypsum and red-clay
tailings for reuse if possible.

The  East  St. Louis Pilot, called  the Metro East
Initiative,  will develop a geographic information
system (GIS) to locate other contaminated sites in the
area and assist in on-site remediation projects and in
measuring  environmental and fiscal impacts  of
brownfields redevelopment.  The EPA grant will be
used for an Advisory Committee, title searches and
research, GIS creation, GIS analysis, transaction
screening of sites, and reports and presentations.
ACCOMPLISHMENTS AND ACTIVITIES

The Pilot is:

• Evaluating technical, legal, and financial risks
 associated with  effective  reuse of the Alcoa
 Aluminum site;

• Implementing and adapting a GIS database to
 inventory brownfields in the metro area;

• Developing a community neighborhood outreach
 program;

• Creating  a  market-based  index of  available,
 brownfields sites for prospective employers; and

• Conducting a base-line analysis to  determine
 availability of  secondary  resource  materials
 manufacturing in the metropolitan region.

LEVERAGING OTHER ACTIVITIES

Experience with the East St. Louis  Pilot has been a
catalyst for related activities including the funding.

• East  St. Louis is working  with the  Economic
 Development  Administration  (EDA) about
 infrastructure grants for the redevelopment of the
 Alcoa Aluminum site.

• East St. Louis continues to coordinate technical and
 financial  resources from EPA,  EDA, and  the
 Department of Housing and Urban Development to
 target brownfields redevelopment in the metro area.
 Regional Brownfields Assessment Pilot                                              East St. Louis, Illinois
 May 1997                                                                     EPA 500-F-97-054

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