United States
                       Environmental
                       Protection Agency
                       Washington, D.C. 20460
 Solid Waste
 and Emergency
 Response (5101)
EPA 500-F-97-076
May 1997

                       Regional   Brownfields
                       Assessment  Pilot
                                                      State  of Indiana
  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 Indiana Department of
Environmental Management (IDEM) for a Regional
Brownfields  Pilot to  support environmental
assessments at approximately twelve brownfields in
Indianapolis and the northwest Indiana communities
of Gary, Hammond, and East Chicago.  In addition,
EPA has granted IDEM the use of a mobile lab to
facilitate testing at the sites.

OBJECTIVES

IDEM's objective is to facilitate the reintroduction of
approximately ten brownfields into the real estate
market.   Currently, the  potential environmental
liability at these sites is unqualified and prospective
purchasers are unwilling to take the risk of accruing
undetermined  future  cleanup costs. The  cost of
conducting a private environmental assessment is
prohibitively high, so these sites remain unused.

IDEM anticipates that, once these sites have been
assessed, the  increased  amount of information
regarding the sites will enable prospective purchasers
to quantify their potential liability accurately and
encourage them to consider purchasing the se site s for
commercial use.
 PILOT SNAPSHOT
    State of Indiana
  Date of Award:
  September 1995

  Amount: $150,000

  Site Profile: The Pilot
  targets approximately
  twelve brownfields in
  Indianapolis and the
  northwest Indiana
  communities of Gary,
  Hammond, and East
  Chicago.
Contacts:

Dana Reed Wise
Indiana Department of
Environmental
Management
(317)308-3048

Jan Pels
U.S. EPA-Region 5
Chicago, IL
(312)886-3009
pels.jan@epamail.epa.gov
Joe Dufficy
U.S. EPA-Region 5
Chicago, IL
(312)886-1960
dufficy.joe@epamail.epa.gov
                                                       Visit the EPA Brownfields Website at:
                                                       http://www.epa.gov/brownfields

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ACCOMPLISHMENTS AND ACTIVITIES

The Pilot has:

• Created a Brownfields Environmental Assessment
 Application to assist communities in the selection of
 their brownfieIds sites;

• Completed inventory of brownfields  sites with
 redevelopmentpotential in the four cities and selected
 several priority sites for assessment;

• Commenced assessment on 12 sites using a mobile
 lab from EPA, and finished final reports on six of
 them. Most of the sites are about ten acres in size and
 were previously used for heavy industry;

• Designed and conducted (in conjunction with the
 Indiana Department of Commerce) brownfields
 workshops for a range of stakeholder groups;

• Developed educational brownfields material,
 including a newsletter; and

• Conducted several other outreach activities including
 several presentations  to stakeholder groups  and
 municipalities.

LEVERAGING OTHER ACTIVITIES

Experience with the State of Indiana Pilot has been a
catalyst for related activities including the following.

• Three of the sites that were  assessed under the Pilot
 are pending cleanup and redevelopment.

• IDEM anticipates that because the redevelopment
 of these sites is of substantial economic importance,
 City and State officials will be involved in facilitating
 any prospective purchases or redevelopment and
 will convey  the assessment  information to the
 prospective purchasers. To date, several of the sites
 have gone forward with redevelopment work.

• IDEM offered to conduct "no cost" brownfields
 environmental assessments to municipalities
 throughout the State.
IDEM, in conjunction with other Indianabrownfields
pilot programs, developed a tool kit designed for
developers.  The tool kit provides information on
the brownfields program, how to participate, and
the legal  and technical  issues associated with
redeveloping properties.

IDEM is using experiences from the Pilot to inform
its proposals for State brownfields legislation.
 Regional Brownfields Assessment Pilot
 May 1997
                                State of Indiana
                             EPA 500-F-97-076

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