United States
Environmental
Protection Agency
Washington, D.C. 20460
Solid Waste
and Emergency
Response (5101)
EPA500-F-97-113
April 1997
National Brownfields
Assessment Pilot
State of Maine
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.
OVERVIEW
EPA has selected the State of Maine as a Brownfields
Pilot. Maine's Voluntary Response Action Plan
Program has served as the primary vehicle for
environmental cleanup by brownfields purchasers.
The program does not have sufficient information to
assist communities and investors in identifying
brownfields opportunities and has not broadly
disseminated information regarding existing legal
and financial tools. The state intends to use this pilot
to fill these critical information and communication
gaps.
Although Maine is characterized as rural, 85 towns
and cities are centers for jobs, retail trade, and social
and cultural services. The pilot will focus on these 85
service centers/communities that have not experienced
the same level of economic growth as surrounding
suburban areas. For example, since 1970, housing
growth has been 48 percent state-wide, as opposed to
only 35 percent in the service centers/communities.
Twenty-one percent of Maine's service center
population is 150 percent below the poverty level.
PILOT SNAPSHOT
State of Maine
Contacts:
Fran Rudoff
Maine State Planning
Office
(207) 287-3262
Date of Award:
April 1997
Amount: $199,017
Site Profile: The pilot will
focus on 85 service
center/communities with
potential or identified
brownfields across the
State of Maine.
John Podgurski
U.S. EPA Region 1
(617)573-9681
podgurski.john@
epamail.epa.gov
Visit the EPA Brownfields Website at:
http://www.epa.gov/brownfields
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OBJECTIVES
Maine's goal is to use redevelopment of brownfields
as a catalyst for revitalizing many communitie s. This
effort is an outgrowth of the state's Growth
Management Program, which calls for orderly
residential, commercial, and industrial development
that is desirable for communities. The state believes
that brownfields redevelopment is a key strategy for
channeling developmentto these growth areas, many
of which support historically significant buildings or
water frontage.
ACTIVITIES
Activities planned as part of this pilot include:
• Creating a geographic information system (GIS)
listing of potential brownfields redevelopment
opportunities in service center communities;
• Creating GIS profiles of the historic development
areas in selected service center communities to
assist developers, investors, and decision makers in
evaluating potential site cleanup issues and additional
brownfields sites;
• Implementing outreach and educational programs
to ensure better understanding and improved
communication; and
• Establishing a municipal revolving loan fund that
will assist towns and cities in assessing and planning
for redevelopment of brownfields sites.
The cooperative agreement for this Pilot has not yet been
negotiated; therefore, activities described in this fact
sheet are subject to change.
National Brownfields Assessment Pilot State of Maine
April 1997 EPA500-F-97-113
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