EPA910-R-04-002
United States
Environmental Protection
Agency
Region 10
1200 Sixth Avenue
Seattle WA 98101
Alaska
Idaho
Oregon
Washington
Office of Environmental Cleanup
February 2004
Community Revitalization
Through
Environmental Cleanup
EPA Activities in Alaska, Idaho, Oregon,
and Washington
The Rose City Plating site in Portland, Oregon undergoes a major transformation.
Today, the former Rose City Plating site is home to Sellwood Lofts, a commercial and residential
property.
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Making Redevelopment an Integral Part of Our Work
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) places a high priority on cleaning up
contaminated sites and returning them to productive use. Cleaning up properties for reuse
invigorates communities, preserves green space, and prevents sprawl. Revitalizing properties
creates jobs and gives local economies a boost. Whether a property is a Superfund site, a waste
disposal facility, a former gas station, or an abandoned industrial site, environmental cleanup
must be achieved with a consideration for the future needs of the nearby community.
To that end, EPA Region 10 works with federal, state, tribal, public, and private partners to
help local decision-makers restore land for a variety of uses. Each reuse plan brings a unique
set of benefits to the local community. Redevelopment options vary widely, from creating
parks, to constructing hospitals, to restoring wetlands, to establishing new businesses.
The projects in this report provide a snapshot of some important revitalization efforts under
way in Region 10. The success of our reuse work stems from EPA's commitment to: making
sure cleanup program policies encourage reuse; creating public-private and cross-
governmental partnerships to foster reuse; instilling a culture of reuse in our workforce; and
providing incentives for reuse through streamlined implementation of new federal Brownfields
legislation, including Brownfields grants and Superfund liability protection for prospective
purchasers of property.
Environmental cleanup and reuse are mutually supportive goals. In EPA Region 10, we will
continue to make reuse an integral part of the way we do business across Alaska, Idaho,
Oregon, and Washington.
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Revitalization Projects in EPA Region 10
EPA is working with all four states on
reuse projects
.
Location of ongoing
or completed reuse or
redevelopment project.
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Cleanup Paves Way for New City Hall
Prineville, Oregon
A new City Hall will be built in Prineville, Oregon on the site of a
former gas station.
In the heart of Prineville, Oregon, the cleanup and
redevelopment of an old gas station are serving as
the cornerstone of downtown revitalization. The
local government of Prineville has partnered with
federal, state, and local entities to raise money and
build a coalition for reuse of the site, along with
an adjacent building and former mobile home
park. The gas station site will be redeveloped to
include a new City Hall building and County
Family Resource Center. The new building will
house at least nine county agencies that serve local
families and children. The mobile home park,
once plagued with severe flooding, has already
been redeveloped as a park and flood-prevention
area.
A technical planning team was critical to the
project's success. Created early-on by the City,
the team did long-range planning and worked to
provide cohesion between project partners. The
cleanup and redevelopment plan for the gas
station became a reality through collaboration
between the City and County, with additional
funding and technical assistance from a wide
range of stakeholders. The U.S. Forest Service
provided a Community Assistance Program grant
for planning the coordination of agencies that will
be housed at the site, as well as, landscaping. The
Oregon Department of Environmental Quality
supplied site remediation support and assistance in
gaining a $200,000 grant from EPA's Brownfields
Program. The Oregon Department of Housing
and Community Services provided a $400,000
Community Initiative Fund grant for cleanup,
courtyard design, and construction. The U.S.
Department of Agriculture, Rural Development Agency
provided a low-cost Community Facilities Loan to the City
for $2 million to design and construct the new building.
Architectural plans are done, and the project team anticipates
that the project will be completed in two to three years.
Silver Valley Economy Gets a Boost
Bunker Hill Superfund Site, Idaho
Tourists are converging on the impressive ski slopes of
Idaho's Silver Valley, where the local economy is
benefitting from new commercial development. This was
not the case twenty years ago when the Bunker Hill lead
smelter and several mines closed, and the local economy
nearly collapsed. Thousands of workers were jobless, and
the area was left poisoned with heavy metals. Many children
in the area had dangerously high blood-lead levels.
To deal with these issues, in 1983, EPA added the 25-
square-mile area around the smelter to the National Priorities
List (NPL), EPA's registry of the nation's most
contaminated hazardous waste sites. Since then, cleanup and
ecological restoration around the lead smelter have removed
lead-contaminated soil from lawns and parks, contained tons
of mine tailings, and planted hundreds of trees. Lead levels
in children have fallen dramatically. The Panhandle Health
District, the State of Idaho, and EPA continue to educate
ft.
The City of Smelterville received EPA funding to clean up petroleum
contamination at four sites on Main Street.
Smelterville's Main Street improved as a result of EPA funding. The Agency
will continue to support revitalization in the Silver Valley.
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Silver Valley residents about how to avoid contaminated
areas and accidental lead ingestion.
New development at Bunker Hill includes a Super 8 Motel,
McDonald's, and the Silver Mountain Resort. The
Panhandle Health District, the State, and EPA developed
institutional controls for the site, which provide safe, clear
procedures for developing property in the Silver Valley.
New businesses have created more than 200 jobs. Over 800
acres have been recovered for development.
Region 10 continues to support revitalization in the Silver
Valley. The Panhandle Health District was awarded a
Superfund Redevelopment Initiative grant to assist with
redevelopment. The City of Smelterville received EPA
funding to assess and clean up petroleum contamination at
four sites on Smelterville's Main Street.
Region 10 also continues to be flexible with regulations
regarding property transfer. Such flexibility can make
redevelopment a more attractive option for businesses.
Redevelopment in the works includes a destination resort
with golf course, housing, and commercial development.
Region 10 will continue to support the Bunker Hill
Infrastructure and Revitalization Plan by helping to find
funding for critical infrastructure needs.
EPA and DOE are working together to figure out the best future
uses for the Hanford 300 Area.
Planning for Future Use of Hanford 300 Area
Hanford Superfund Site, Richland, Washington
EPA Region 10 and the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)
are studying the feasibility of redeveloping the "300 Area"
at the Hanford Superfund Site. Since the beginning of
Hanford cleanup discussions, EPA had planned that the
300 Area would be cleaned to industrial standards, and
then revitalized under the EPA Brownfields Program upon
cleanup completion. Local governments have been
concerned, however, that planned cleanup activities could
hinder opportunities for future industrial use of the site. In
particular, it is unclear whether efforts to attract
development will be successful if nearly all of the site's
buildings and infrastructure are removed, or are
unavailable for prospective development.
The EPA/DOE study is funded through a cooperative
agreement with the City of Richland. The first phase of
the study examines the highest and best future uses of the
property. The second phase of the study will be a market
feasibility analysis that considers the best ways of
marketing the area to future users.
The Hanford 300 Area is an industrial complex next to the
Columbia River about a mile north of Richland. It
includes additional areas surrounding the industrial
complex that were used for solid and liquid waste disposal.
The 300 Area is one of the four areas at the Hanford
Nuclear Reservation on EPA's National Priorities List.
Hanford was built in the 1940's to make plutonium for
nuclear weapons.
Community Plans Beachfront Park
Wyckoff/Eagle Harbor Superfund Site, Bainbridge
Island, Washington
Through a national competition and selection process,
EPA has provided Superfund Redevelopment Initiative
funds to help the Bainbridge Island community plan for a
future park at the Wyckoff/Eagle Harbor Superfund Site.
Since 1995, the City of Bainbridge Island and the
Bainbridge Island Parks and Recreational District have
been working with the community to plan for a park and
recreational area after the site is cleaned up. EPA funding
has enabled them to hire a team of experts to help with
design and community involvement.
EPA staff plant trees at the Wyckoff/Eagle Harbor Site.
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Landscape architects and community outreach experts
assisted the local community in developing a strategy that
creates a vision for the park. The strategy considers possible
site constraints and costs associated with recreational
maintenance and future site controls. The area being
considered for the beachfront park has a beautiful view of
the Seattle skyline.
The Wyckoff Company operated a wood-treating facility at
the site from the early 1900's to the late 1980's. The facility
and a former shipyard are major sources of widespread
sediment contamination in the 500-acre harbor and nearby
upland areas.
under the Superfund authority and keep the cleanup moving
forward using a new set of resources. EPA also negotiated a
Prospective Purchaser Agreement with Pacific Wood
Preserving to protect the company from liability for past
contamination, and to facilitate reuse while cleanup
continues.
Another attractive benefit of the deal is that the new site
owners will be using wood preservatives with low
environmental toxicity, a big improvement from the more
toxic preservatives currently found on the site. The
economic and environmental benefits of this project make it
a model that can be applied at similar sites nationwide.
Integrating Cleanup Authorities for
Faster Reuse
Taylor Lumber and Treating Site, Sheridan, Oregon
An innovative use of RCRA and Superfund cleanup
authorities at the former Taylor Lumber and Treating facility
has given new life to a property in Sheridan, Oregon. Pacific
Wood Preserving of Oregon now occupies a major portion of
the former Taylor sawmill and wood-treating facility. The
new business is an example of EPA's integrating cleanup
authorities to quickly get a contaminated site back into use.
The former site owners declared bankruptcy midway through
a RCRA corrective action to clean up spilled wood-treating
chemicals that impacted soil, surface water, groundwater,
and air quality. With limited funds to continue cleanup, EPA
staff crafted an approach that allowed them to bring the site
Inventory of Underground Tanks to Aid
Redevelopment
Mountlake Terrace, Washington
The Washington State Department of Ecology and EPA
Region 10 worked with the City of Mountlake Terrace to
develop an inventory of contaminated petroleum sites in the
community. A result of these efforts is a map of 40 possible
UST fields in the 4-square-mile city.
The map is helping the City identify underground storage
tanks for inclusion in the City's comprehensive
redevelopment plan. In addition to helping Mountlake
Terrace, this work assisted the State and EPA in identifying
the time and resources needed to initiate the assessment and
redevelopment process for underground storage tank sites.
The information will be a valuable resource for other
communities that submit USTfields pilot proposals.
Wood preservatives with low environmental toxicity will be used at the Taylor Lumber and Treating site.
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Good News at Former Junkyard in
Spokane, Washington
The Spokane Junkyard site in the Hillyard neighborhood of
Spokane was contaminated with PCBs, lead, and solvents
from 50 years of metal recycling. The area has now been
planted with grass, and a parking lot has been installed over
the hazardous waste containment cell. Construction of a
sports complex was completed in 2002. As a result of the
cleanup, much needed affordable housing has been
constructed north of the property.
Before cleanup, the Spokane Junkyard was a contaminated eyesore for the community.
Residents enjoy the new sports complex at the former Spokane Junkyard.
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Brownfields Program Going Strong
To date, Region 10 has awarded 20 communities with Brownfields Assessment grants, totaling more than $8 million. In
addition to Brownfields pilots, Targeted Brownfields Assessments have been conducted by EPA and the states in local
communities that may not have a Brownfields pilot. Targeted Brownfields Assessments provide funding or technical
assistance for environmental assessments that promote cleanup and redevelopment. This type of assistance has been
particularly beneficial to small rural communities across Region 10.
Innovative Solutions Bring Prosperity to
Astoria, Oregon
The City of Astoria, Oregon has worked in partnership with
EPA, the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality,
ECOTRUST, and the community to clean up the City's
abandoned mill sites and transform them into thriving
waterfront properties. With a jump-start from an EPA
$200,000 Brownfields Pilot grant, Astoria's Plywood Mill is
one of two sites leading the way. Located next to Astoria's
downtown historic area, the former industrial property was
selected to make use of a $700,000 loan provided by Shore
Trust Advisory Services for use in Brownfields cleanup. The
site will soon house a public promenade,
shops, and residential housing.
The second property being redeveloped is
the Merlin site, which lies north of Grants
Pass along 1-5, a major industrial corridor.
The Merlin site was purchased by a
German company, Rendata, which
invested over $6 million for
redevelopment. Rendata is now marketing
lots for leasing within the 187-acre
industrial park. This project has already
filled 200 of the anticipated 1,000
employment positions that will be created.
With progress made on every one of its
targeted sites, the Oregon Mills
Brownfields project serves as an effective
model for other large-scale Brownfields
programs.
Museum of Glass Dazzles Tacoma,
Washington
The City of Tacoma has used EPA funds for a Brownfields
Assessment Pilot to encourage economic growth and
redevelopment of the downtown area, focusing on the
western side of the Thea Foss Waterway. Through City,
State, and federal leveraging, the Museum of Glass recently
opened there, with unique artwork donated by Dale Chihuly
valued at nearly $10 million. A nearly $5 million pedestrian
walkway with a "Chihuly Bridge of Glass" links the museum
to downtown Tacoma.
Along the Thea Foss Waterway, cleanup has gone hand-in-hand with redevelopment.
Photo contributed by Dan Rone.
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Creating New Business Opportunities
Annette Island Reserve, Alaska
The Metlakatla Community is using USTfield Pilot funds to
address properties with underground tanks in sensitive areas.
Several of the sites are near residential areas and may have
MTBE contamination. One of the proposed properties is in
an ideal location for a tourism-based enterprise. The new
work will build on the foundation developed under a
previous grant to complete tribal codes and ordinances for
the management of underground storage tanks and to
develop an inventory of tanks located in the community.
The Metlakatla Indian Community is on the only Federal
Indian Reservation in Alaska. It has been designated by the
U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development as an
Enterprise Community. It is also a Brownfields Showcase
Community.
Redeveloping an Old Cannery at the
Uhgashik Traditional Village, Alaska
Abandoned canneries litter Alaskan native villages. A
Targeted Brownfields Assessment conducted in the Ugashik
traditional village helped support village efforts to redevelop
this old cannery site as a flash-freezing facility to support
native fishing activities.
The main cannery building at Ugashik traditional village was
collapsing before it was redeveloped as a flash-freezing facility.
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For More Information
Contact:
Mike Shepherd
EPA Region 10 Land Revitalization Coordinator
206-553-0702
shepherd.mike@epa.gov
1200 Sixth Avenue
Seattle, WA 98101-1128
EPA Region 10 Toil-Free Telephone Number
1-800-424-4372
EPA Region 10 Website
www.epa.gov/rlOearth/
Photo by Doug Jones
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