&EPA United States Environmental Protection Agency Washington, D.C. 20460 Solid Waste and Emergency Response (5101) EPA 500-F-98-164 May 1998 Assessment Demonstration Pilot Port of Seattle, WA 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 150 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 Port of Seattle for a Brownfields Pilot. The Pilot focuses on the 970-acre Ballard Interbay Northend Manufacturing and Industrial Center (BINMIC), which was established to ensure that adequate accessible industrial land would be available to promote a diversified employment base. BINMIC is home to more than 1,000 businesses and 16,000 employees. Along with the Environmental Impact Statement, the BINMIC Industrial Area Plan is the nation's first comprehensive blueprint for industrial sustainability in an urban setting. BINMIC faces major challenges. Rising land prices and uncertainty regarding long-term cleanup liability threaten BINMIC's ability to clean up brownfields and remain an industrial area. The need for scarce expansion space has forced successful businesses to move out of BINMIC. The Pilot is designed to stop the exodus of expanding business and ensure growth within BINMIC by determining soil cleanup levels that are tiedto state-approved presumptive remedies. This will introduce certainty into developers' estimates of cleanup costs, which will facilitate the cleanup and reuse of BINMIC brownfields. PILOT SNAPSHOT Port of Seattle, Washington Date of Announcement: May 1998 Amount: $200,000 Profile: The Pilot targets the 970-acre Ballard Interbay Northend Manufacturing and Industrial Center (BINMIC). Contacts: Port of Seattle (206) 728-3731 Regional Brownfields Team U.S. EPA-Region 10 (206) 553-6523 Visit the EPA Region 10 Brownfields web site at: http://epainotes1.rtpnc.epa.gov:7777/r10/ cleanup.nsf/webpage/Brownfields Forfurtherinformation, 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/ ------- OBJECTIVES The objective of the BINMIC Industrial Area Plan is to facilitate the cleanup, redevelopment, and reuse of historic BINMIC industrial properties to retain industries and add 3,800 family-wage jobs by the year 2014. The Brownfields Pilot will supportthis obj ective by determining industrial-based soil cleanup levels for BINMIC brownfields, linking them to specific, ecologically-sound presumptive remedies, and thus provide property owners with more certainty in estimating cleanup costs. ACCOMPLISHMENTS AND ACTIVITIES Activities planned as part of this Pilot include: • Assessing the nature and extent of contamination at BINMIC properties; • Comparing representative site conditions to appropriate cleanup technologies; • Compiling and obtaining state approval of aconditions checklist for site cleanup activities; • Conducting community outreach through newsletters and workshops; and • Documenting local community concerns. This project will foster a unique partnership between the Port of Seattle, City of Seattle, the Neighborhood Business Council, community groups, the state, and the EPA. 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 Port of Seattle, Washington May 1998 EPA500-F-98-164 ------- |