United States
                      Environmental
                      Protection Agency
                      Washington, D.C. 20460
  Solid Waste
  and Emergency
  Response (5105)
EPA 500-F-00-203
July 2000
www.epa.gov/brownfields/
 &EPA     Brownfields  Cleanup
                      Revolving  Loan  Fund  Pilot
                                                             McKeesport,  PA
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

The City of McKeesport is located in the
Monongahela River Valley of Allegheny County.
This region was once the center of the United States
steel-making industry. In the 1970s and 1980s, the
economy of the region experienced a precipitous
decline. The results of this economic shift, include
high unemployment and poverty rates (13.7 percent
and 24.2 percent respectively) and the
underutilization or abandonment of many formerly
active industrial and commercial sites.
Today, the City of McKeesport contains
approximately 175 acres of brownfields. In general,
these properties  have good access to public
transportation or are within walking distance from the
City's low income and minority neighborhoods.
Revitalization of these sites would provide job
opportunities to  the residents of the poorest areas of
the City. McKeesport received an assessment pilot
with Clairton and Duquesne in 1999.

BCRLF OBJECTIVES

The objectives of the McKeesport BCRLF program
are to eliminate blight, create jobs, increase the tax
base of the City, and curtail the exploitation of
farmland greenfields and the proliferation of
PILOT SNAPSHOT
                     Date of Announcement:
                     July 2000

                     Amount: $500,000

                     BCRLF Target Area:
                     City of McKeesport
McKeesport, PA
Contacts:

Community Development
Director
(412)657-5020
 Region 3 BCRLF
 Coordinator
 (215)814-3246
      Visit the EPA Region 3 Brownfields web site at:
     www.epa.gov/reg3hwmd/brownfld/hmpage1.htm

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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suburban sprawl.

FUND STRUCTURE AND OPERATIONS

The Redevelopment Authority of the City McKeesport
(RACM) will be the lead agency and serve as fund
manager. The site manager has not been designated.

McKeesport  will  contribute  in-kind  services  to
maximize loan value. The City expects to make two or
three  loans of $100,000 to  $250,000 to prospective
landowners or developers in the three-year pilot period.
The term of each loan will range between two and
seven years. The interest rate will be determined on a
loan-specific basis. Origination fees for the loans will
range from zero to two percent.  Ten percent of a
project's loan value will be retained by the City until
the project has been satisfactorily completed. BCRLF
loan recipients will be required to participate in the
Pennsylvania Land Recycling Program.

LEVERAGING OTHER RESOURCES

Many of the brownfields targeted by the McKeesport
BCRLF are in state-designated Keystone Opportunity
Zones and/or Enterprise Zones. Available  tools for
brownfields redevelopment in these areas include, tax
abatements on real estate, income tax, sales and use
taxes,  and  corporate income taxes. Other possible
sources of  funds are the existing EPA  Brownfields
Assessment Demonstration Pilot grant fund, Allegheny
County and Pennsylvania Department of Community
and Economic Development's loan and grant programs,
and local banking and lending institutions.
Use of BCRLF Pilot funds must be in accordance with
CERCLA, and all CERCLA restrictions on use of funding
also apply to BCRLF funds.
Brownfields Cleanup Revolving Loan Fund Pilot                                               McKeesport, Pennsylvania
July 2000	EPA 500-F-00-203

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