United States
                    Environmental
                    Protection Agency
                    Washington, D.C. 20460
 Solid Waste
 and Emergency
 Response (5101)
 EPA 500-F-00-039
 April 2000
 www.epa.gov/brownfields/
  <&EPA  Brownfields Supplemental
                   Assistance
                                                          Niagara  Falls,  NY
 Outreach and Special Projects Staff (5105)
                    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. EPA is funding: assessment demonstration pilot programs (each funded
up to $200,000 over two years), to assess brownfields sites and to test cleanup and redevelopment models; job training
pilot programs (each funded up to $200,000 over two years), to provide training for residents of communities affected
by brownfields to facilitate cleanup of brownfields sites and prepare trainees for future employment in the environmental
field; and, cleanup revolving loan fund programs (each funded up to $500,000 over five years) to capitalize loan funds
to make loans for the environmental cleanup of brownfields. These pilot programs 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 awarded the City of Niagara Falls supplemental
assistance for its Brownfields Assessment
Demonstration Pilot. Between 1960 and 1990, the
city' s population declined substantially, as industries
left the area and the manufacturing worker population
dropped by one-third. This has left idle sites that are
a major problem for Niagara Falls.  No tracts of
undeveloped, uncontaminated  land remain for
development within the city; therefore, brownfields
cleanup is imperative for economic growth.

The Pilot originally targeted properties in the Highland
Avenue Redevelopment Area,  a state-designated
Economic DevelopmentZone(EDZ), for assessment,
cleanup, and redevelopment. With the supplemental
assistance funds, the Pilot is extending its focus area
to the Buffalo Avenue Corridor, also an EDZ. Among
the city's most troubled areas, the Buffalo Avenue
Corridor, comprising approximately 1,560 acres in the
southern section of the city, has  a  14.8 percent
unemployment rate, compared  with the state's 5
percent rate, and 24.5 percent of the households lived
be low the poverty level in 1990. The shift away from
maj or manufacturing has left a pattern of underutilized
land in the Buffalo Avenue Corridor that fails to
capitalize on the city's location advantages, economic
PILOT  SNAPSHOT
                     Date of Announcement:
                     March 2000

                     Amount: $150,000

                     Profile: The Pilot targets
                     sites in the Buffalo Avenue
                     Corridor for assessment,
                     cleanup, and development.
  Niagara Falls, New York
Contacts:
Office of Environmental
Services
City of Niagra Falls
(716)286-4467
Regional Brownfields Team
U.S. EPA - Region 2
(212)637-4314
       Visit the EPA Region 2 Brownfields web site at:
 http://www.epa.gov/r02earth/superfnd/brownfld/bfmainpg.htm

     Forfuttherinformation, 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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potential, and value. Redevelopment of this area will
provide an opportunity for Niagara Falls to revitalize
economically  disadvantaged areas, provide jobs,
augment the city's dwindling tax base, and limit
infrastructure maintenance costs.

OBJECTIVES  AND PLANNED ACTIVITIES

Niagara Falls's primary objective is to make vacant
land and blighted property available for redevelopment
and thereby creating jobs for citizens and increase the
tax base. The city will use the supplemental assistance
to assist this effort by conducting site investigations
on at least three properties in the Buffalo Avenue
Corridor, the first step in demonstrating the viability of
cleanup and redevelopment in the area.

To accomplish these objectives, the Pilot plans to:

• Identify at least three sites for Phase I and Phase n
  investigations;

• Develop a Buffalo Avenue Corridor Reuse Plan
  that ties brownfields redevelopment to an overall
  neighborhood improvement program;

• Conduct outreach and community  involvement
  efforts  to involve citizens in the redevelopment
  process;

• Create an advisory committee comprised of various
  stakeholders, including community groups, to foster
  public awareness  and input  of brownfield
  redevelopment efforts in the corridor; and

• Investigate   environmental  assessments  at
  "mothballed" brownfields sites where the present
  owners did not contribute to the contamination.
The cooperative agreement for this Pilot has not yet been negotiated;
therefore, activities described in this fact sheet are subject to change.
 Brownfields Supplemental Assistance                                                 Niagara Falls, New York
 April 2000                                                                         EPA 500-F-00-039

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