u o Brownfields Supplemental Assistance City of Austin, TX BACKGROUND EPA awarded the City of Austin supplemental assistance for its Brownfields Assessment Demonstration Pilot. Austin, located in central Texas' Travis County, is home to over 466,000 residents. Historically, much of Austin's industrial development was concentrated in the eastern part of the city. However, new service-oriented and high- tech businesses are being established in the rapidly expanding northern and southern portions of Austin. Many of the available properties in east Austin are passed over as the new businesses are established, partly due to real or perceived contamination resulting from past industrial operations. As aresult, east Austin has disproportionately greater unemployment and fewer new job opportunities than the rest of the city. Austin's original Pilot targeted three landfills in east Austin—the Brinkley-Anderson, Grove, and Turner Landfills. Pilot funding provided for Phase I environmental site assessments at each landfill, and a Phase II environmental site assessment at the Turner Landfill. In addition, Pilot funds were used for community outreach activities and to coordinate and leverage additional assessments with the State of Texas and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Supplemental assistance is needed to expand the city's efforts to bring underused properties in east Austin's urban core into productive use. OBJECTIVES AND PLANNED ACTIVITIES The supplemental assistance primarily will be used to perform Phase I and Phase II assessments on brownfields within the city's Central East Austin Master Plan/East 11th and 12th Streets Community Redevelopment Plan area. The objectives of the Pilot are to complete Phase I assessments at four brownfields within the target neighborhood, and Phase II assessments on two of those four brownfields. Through the planned Pilot activities, the PILOT SNAPSHOT City of Austin, Texas Date of Announcement: May 2002 Amount: $150,000 Profile: The Pilot targets four brownfieldsforsiteassessment activities to increase the economic and environmental viability of central eastAustin's urban core. Contacts: Austin Watershed Protection and Development Review Department (512)974-1954 Regional Brownfields Team U.S. EPA Region 6 (214)665-6736 Visit the E PA Region 6 Brownfields web site at: http://www.epa.gov/earth1r6/6sf/bfpages/sfbfhome.htm Forfurtherinformation,includingspecific Pilot contacts, additional Pilot information, brownfields news and events, and publications and links, visit the EPA Brownfields web site at: www.epa.gov/brownfields city hopes to increase housing and home ownership opportunities in central east Austin, enhance neighborhood cleanup, improve infrastructure, and revitalize the area through business and entrepreneurial development. Activities planned as part of this Pilot include: • Performing four Phase I environmental site assessments and two Phase II environmental site assessments; ------- • Identifying the remaining brownfields in the city and creating a brownfields inventory database; and • Hosting three neighborhood meetings and developing outreach materials. Thecooperativeagreementforthis Pilot hasnotyetbeen negotiated; therefore, activities described in this fact sheet are subject to change. Solid Waste EPA 500-F-02-102 and Emergency May 2002 Response (5105) www.epa.gov/brownfields/ ------- |