United States
                      Environmental
                      Protection Agency
                      Washington, D.C. 20460
 Solid Waste
 and Emergency
 Response (5105)
EPA 500-F-01-013
June 2001
www.epa.gov/brownfields/
    &EPA    Brownfields Assessment
                      Demonstration  Pilot
                                                              Uniontown, AL
 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 selected Uniontown for a Brownfields Pilot.
Uniontown is a small, rural community of 1,730 in
west central Alabama, 30 miles west of Selma. The
city's  poverty rate is  41  percent; 67 percent  of
residents have low to moderate incomes; 65 percent
of the population is  African American; and the
unemployment rate is 10 percent, slightly more than
twice that of the State of Alabama and the United
States. The city's population has declined 18 percent
over the past 20 years, leading to lower property
values and sociological, economic, and environmental
problems throughout the area. Unemployment is a
serious problem in Uniontown, causedbythe departure
of four factories that were the city' s maj or employers.
These factory closings resulted in the layoff of the
majority of the city's workforce.

The Pilot is focusing on three properties in Uniontown.
One of these, the King Pharr vegetable canning
factory complex, was one  of the area's  major
employers until it closed in 1974.  The factory lay
abandoned for several years, until the city purchased
the property for redevelopment into an industrial park.
For a brief period, the property was used to store
"carbonblack,"amaterial used in cement and coloring
products. Although a non-hazardous substance, the
PILOT SNAPSHOT
                      Date of Award:
                      September 1998

                      Amount: $200,000

                      Profile: Uniontowntargets
                      three properties on the east
                      side of the city forcleanup
                      and redevelopment.
  Uniontown, Alabama
Contacts:
Uniontown City Hall
(334)628-2011
  U.S. EPA-Region 4
  (404)562-8661
     Visit the EPA Region 4 Brownfields web site at:
      http://www.epa.gov/region4/waste/bf/bf.htm

   Forfurther 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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presence of carbon black has leftpotential purchasers
with the perception that the property is contaminated.

OBJECTIVES
The city plans to revitalize the area by restoring and
reusing existing resources.  A  high priority is the
redevelopment of the King Pharr factory site, which
would create jobs and improve the local tax base. To
aid the community plan to redevelop the property into
an industrial park, the Pilot will assess the site, assist
with cleanup  and redevelopment planning,  and
investigate innovative ways to finance cleanup of this
property, as well as other targeted brownfields in the
area. The Pilot also plans to involve the community
in its activities.

ACCOMPLISHMENTS AND ACTIVITIES
The Pilot has:
• Produced a project newsletter;
• Identified, inventoried, and targeted three brownfields
  properties; and
• Begun assessments on the three targetedproperties.
The Pilot is:
• Developing innovative methods to finance cleanup
  of the targeted sites;
• Developing  innovative cleanup methods  for the
  targeted  sites;
• Preparing cleanup and redevelopment plans for the
  targeted properties; and
• Conducting public outreach  and involving the
  residents/community in town meetings relating to
  cleanup and redevelopment of the targeted sites.
LEVERAGING OTHER ACTIVITIES
Experience with the Uniontown Pilot has been a
catalyst for related activities, including the following:

• The city has created a nonprofit community
 development corporation called the Uniontown
 Brownfield Redevelopment Corporation (UBRC)
 to involve the community  in the  cleanup  and
 redevelopment process.
 Brownfields Assessment Demonstration Pilot
 June 2001
                              Uniontown, Alabama
                               EPA 500-F-01-013

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