United States
Environmental
Protection Agency
Washington, D.C. 20460
Solid Waste
and Emergency
Response (5101)
EPA 500-F-00-042
April 2000
www.epa.gov/brownfields/
&EPA BrownfieldsSupplemental
Assistance
Portland, OR
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 Portland supplemental
assistance for its Brownfields Assessment
Demonstration Pilot. Portland was once the state's
oldest and largest industrial, shipping, commercial,
and urban center. Historically, the waterfrontprovided
jobs to low-income and minority citizens in nearby
North and Northeast Portland. Today, the
manufacturing jobs have shrunk dramatically, leaving
higher poverty and unemployment rates in these
federally designated Enterprise Community (EC)
neighborhoods.
The Pilot targets the North/Northeast section of
Portland, the part of the city that has the highest
number of brownfields in the city and the least amount
of resources to engage in cleanup and redevelopment
activities. Brownfields in this area are small sites,
dispersed throughout residential and commercial
nodes. Many of the brownfields remain in private
hands, with owners of these properties faced with a
choice of losingmoney by cleaning up andredeveloping
the property or doing nothing with the property and
perhaps losing less money. Suspected contamination
and associated liability and cleanup costs have limited
PILOT SNAPSHOT
Portland, Oregon
Date of Announcement:
March 2000
Amount: $150,000
Profile: The City of Portland's
supplemental assistance targets
North/Northeast Portland, the
part of the city with the most
brownfields and the fewest of
resources to address their
redevelopment.
Contacts:
Portland Office of Transportation
City of Portland
(503)823-7053
Regional Brownfields Team
U.S. EPA-Region 10
(206)553-2100
Visit the E PA Region 10 Brownfields web site at:
http://epainotes1.rtpnc.epa.gov:7777/MO/cleanup.nsf/
webpage/Brownfields
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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reuse of these sites, while pressure to develop new
industry and urban homesites on adjacent farm and
forest land continues to grow.
OBJECTIVES AND PLANNED ACTIVITIES
The city is beginning a development strategy that
seeks to combine aggressive business recruitment,
job creation, andurbanrevitalization with smart growth
management, transportation planning, and
environmental protection. The city recognizes that
addressing brownfields is critical to realizing these
long-term goals.
Portland will use the supplemental assistance to
support ongoing efforts by the Portland Brownfields
Showcase and the North/Northeast Portland
Brownfields Showcase Community Advisory
Committee (CAC) to facilitate the site identification,
prioritization, and assessment of brownfields in the
North/Northeast area of Portland that have the
greatest potential for redevelopment. The funding
will also be used to plan cleanup activities on sites
approved by CAC and the Portland Brownfields
Showcase.
To accomplish these objectives, the Pilot plans to:
• Identify three North/Northeast brownfields sites for
further investigations;
• Collect, review, and analyze existing environmental
documentation for selected sites and determine
scope for testing and analysis at each site;
• Conduct Phase I site assessments at the three
targeted sites; and
• ConductPhase n site assessments, document results,
prepare cleanup cost estimates, and identify cleanup
options at the three targeted sites.
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 Portland, Oregon
April 2000 EPA 500-F:-00-042
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