United States
Environmental
Protection Agency
Washington, D.C. 20460
Solid Waste
and Emergency
Response (5101)
EPA 500-F-99-009
March 1999
www.epa.gov/brownfields/
PA Brownfields Assessment
Demonstration Pilot
Girard, 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. Since 1995, EPA has funded more than 200 Brownfields Assessment
Demonstration Pilots, at up to $200,000 each, to support creative two-year explorations and demonstrations of
brownfields solutions. 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 has selected the City of Girard for a Brownfields
Pilot. The city (population 11,304), historically known
for steel production, was established along the
Mahoning River, a tributary of the Ohio River. Many
of the steel mills along the Mahoning River have
closed, causing significant job loss, decrease in
population, reduction in the tax base, inability to clean
up related environmental problems, and a transition
from amanufacturing-based economy to a service- and
retail-based economy. Today, the city is slowly
rebounding from the 1970s downsizing of the steel
industry. Many scars and reminders in the form of
abandoned buildings and vacant lots, however, mark
the city's history as a mill town. The Trumbull County
Planning Commission has estimated that the city has
about 173 acres of unused brownfields, which is about
20 percent of the city's available industrial land.
The Pilot will focus on the site of the former Ohio
Leather Company plant, which produced calfskin
leather for more than 70 years. After its closure in
1972, the plant sat idle for almost two decades until a
1995 fire destroyed all existing buildings. The 27-acre
site is located near the gateway to the city and is
bordered by a disadvantaged neighborhood (nearly 50
percent of the residents lack ahigh school diploma), an
active steel plant, and the Mahoning River. About a
quarter of the site was used for storage of scrap titanium
for reuse in the steel industry. The site is also littered
PILOT SNAPSHOT
Girard, Ohio
Date of Announcement:
March 1999
Amount: $200,000
Profile: The Pilot targets the
27-acre former Ohio Leather
Company site located along the
Mahoning River.
Contacts:
Trumbull County Planning
Commission
(330) 545-3879
Regional Brownfields Team
U.S. EPA-Region 5
(312)353-3161
Visit the EPA Region 5 Brownfields web site at:
http://www.epa.gov/R5Brownfields/
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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with scrap tires, used grinding wheels, brick, and other
materials left behind after the fire. Prior efforts to get
the site owner to clean up the property have failed, and
the city is currently in negotiations to acquire the property.
The city is targeting this site because of community
need, the site's visibility, proximity to the Mahoning
River, overall development potential, and its location in
a state-designated enterprise zone.
OBJECTIVES
With this project, the Pilot'sobjectivesareto supplement
city efforts to organize a Brownfields Task Force, bring
new jobs to the community, provide additional skilled
labor for the city's work force, increase the city's tax
base, and improve the standard of living in the
surrounding neighborhoods. An important component
of the Pilot is to provide special outreach to the affected
neighborhoods and directly solicit their input about site
cleanup and redevelopment. The city hopes that cleanup
and redevelopment of the property will alleviate
environmental and aesthetic problems, and prevent new
problems from occurring by requiring new facilities to
employ the best available pollution control and pollution
prevention technologies and practices. Further, the city
will develop a set of site-specific development guidelines
that employ sustainable reuse principles to ensure that
future use of the property will play a role in the long-
term sustainability of the Mahoning River Corridor.
ACCOMPLISHMENTS AND ACTIVITIES
Activities planned as part of this Pilot include:
• Evaluating the targeted property's suitability for
participation in Ohio's Voluntary Action Program;
• Conducting Phase I and II site assessments at the Ohio
Leather Company site, and investigating three other
known brownfields;
• Planning for site cleanup and redevelopment activities
at the Ohio Leather Company site;
• Supporting efforts to protect and revitalize the
Mahoning River Corridor; and
• Developing public education programs regarding the
Ohio Leather Company site.
The cooperative agreement for this Pilot has not yet been negotiated;
therefore, activities described in this fact sheet are subject to change.
Brownfields Assessment Demonstration Pilot Girard, Ohio
March 1999 EPA 500-F-99-009
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