u
                 o
                            Assessment
                            City of Waco,  TX
BACKGROUND

EPA has selected the City of Waco for a Brownfields
Assessment Pilot. Waco (population 113,726) is located in
central Texas, approximately 96 miles south of Dallas.
The city will focus its brownfields redevelopment proj ect
along the eastern side of the Brazos River Corridor, which
includes the downtown business district. The corridor and
the downtown central business district are naturally divided
by the Brazos River. Historically, the Brazos River Corridor
has been home to cattle-industry  businesses, iron and
brass foundries and machine shops,  paper processing
plants, and furniture manufacturers. In recent years, many
of these industries moved from the areato the outskirts of
the city. While redevelopment of the west side of the
corridor has been largely successful, many commercial
and industrial properties along the eastern side of the river
remain abandoned or are in disrepair, and concerns about
environmental  contamination have  hampered
redevelopment efforts.

The Pilot targets  potential brownfield sites  in the Waco
Brownfields Redevelopment Zone on the economically
depressed east side of the Brazos River Corridor, within
a  federally  designated  Enterprise Community/
Empowerment  Zone  (EC/EZ).  The  area is an
environmental  justice area that has not shared in the
growth and prosperity that has come to the downtown
area on the west side of the river. East Waco has a 54.6
percent minority population, and more than 50 percent of
its residents live below the poverty line. Although there has
been some revitalization of the area, including construction
of a hotel on a former landfill site, redevelopment efforts
at many sites have been slowed or stalled because of
concerns about suspected environmental problems.

OBJECTIVES

Waco's objective is to foster  a  new  and expanding
downtown business district on both sides of the Brazos
River that will attract amix of commercial and residential
   PILOT SNAPSHOT
    City of Waco, Texas
Date of Announcement:
May 2002

Amount: $200,000

Profile: The Pilot targets
potential brownfields sites in the
WacoBrownfields Redevelop-
mentZone on the economically
depressed east side of the
Brazos River Corridor, an
environmental    justice
community within a federal EC/
EZ.
   Contacts:

   City of Waco-Water Utility
   Department
   (254)750-8001
Regional Brownfields Team
U.S. EPA Region 6
(214)665-6736
        Visit the EPA Region 6 Brownfields web site at:
     http://www.epa.gov/earth1r6/6sf/bfpages/sfbfhome.htm

    For furtherinformation, including specific Pilotcontacts, additional
    Pilot information, brownfields newsand events, and publications
        and links, visit the EPA Brownfields web site at:
              www.epa.gov/brownfields

redevelopment and improve the  living conditions of
residents. The Pilot will build on an existing inventory of
vacant, underused, and abandoned sites by creating a
database of sites prioritized based upon their potential for
redevelopment and environmental concerns, and  will
conduct  Phase I and  Phase II  environmental  site
assessments on sites with  the highest potential  for
redevelopment.

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ACTIVITIES AND ACCOMPLISHMENTS

Activities planned as part of this Pilot include:

• Identifying and prioritizing sites based on redevelopment
  potential and environmental concerns;

• Conducting six to  ten  Phase I environmental site
  assessments; and

• Conducting four to six Phase II environmental site
  assessments based  on  the  results  of Phase I
  investigations.

The cooperative agreement forthis Pilot has notyetbeen negotiated; therefore,
activities described in this fact sheet are subject to change.
                                                             Solid Waste           EPA 500-F-02-054
                                                             and Emergency        May 2002
                                                             Response (5105)      www.epa.gov/brownfields/

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