United States
                  Environmental
                  Protection Agency
                  Washington, D.C. 20460
Solid Waste
and Emergency
Response  (5101)
EPA500-F-99-060
May 1999
www.epa.gov/brownfields/
 >>EPA   Brownfields Cleanup
                  Revolving  Loan  Fund  Pilot
                                                   City of Columbia, SC
 Outreach and Special Projects Staff (5101)
                    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 forthe 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

Columbia is the State of South Carolina's largest city
by population (just over 110,000 residents) and land
area. The City has a 46 percent minority population,
and21 percentlivebelowthe poverty level. Abandoned
orunderutilizedpropertiesinthe City include former
steel fabrication plants, rail yards and rail spurs, cotton
mills and warehouses.   Known and perceived
environmental contamination have restrained private
sector restoration, and continues to hamper the full
economic use of the  City's resources. Columbia,
jointly with the City of Sumter, was designated as an
Empowerment Zone.  Columbia is a Brownfields
Assessment Demonstration Pilot.

BCRLF OBJECTIVES

The City's BCRLF goal  is to enhance community
involvement, create jobs, and transform Columbia
into a thriving community bustling with 24-hour
residential, commercial,  and retail activities.  The
BCRLF is seen as a catalyst for redevelopmentthrough
the removal  of environmental contamination and
barriers, and as a tool to encourage public-private
partnerships  in brownfields  redevelopment.   The
BCRLF will give special emphasis to sites identified by
 PILOT SNAPSHOT
  City of Columbia,
  South Carolina
 Contacts:
 Columbia Development
 Corporation
 (803) 988-8040
Date of Announcement:
May 25,1999

Amount: $500,000

BCRLF Target Area:
Sites identified by the
Brownfields Assessment
Demonstration Pilotand sites
with in the Empowerment
Zone
   Region 4 Brownfields
   Coordinator
   (404) 562-8661
      Visit the EPA Region 4 Brownfields web site at:
   www.epa.gov/region4/wastepgs/brownfpgs/bf.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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the Brownfields Assessment Demonstration Pilot and
in Empowerment Zone areas.

FUND STRUCTURE AND OPERATIONS

The City, serving as the lead agency, will contract with
the South Carolina  Department of Health and
Environmental Control to obtain assistance in carrying
out its site management responsibilities. The City's
Community  Development Department, with  an
extensive history of managing similar revolving loan
funds, such as the Commercial Revolving Loan Fund,
the Housing Revolving Loan Fund, and Community
Development Block Grants funds, will serve as fund
manager.

LEVERAGING

The City will make efforts to attract private investment
to BCRLF projects.  Similar loan funds in Columbia
have led to a 4:1 ratio of private to public dollars. The
existence of other Federal redevelopment programs,
including the  EPA Brownfields Assessment
Demonstration Pilot and the establishment of a HUD
Empowerment Zone in the Cities of Columbia and
Sumter, also will complementthe BCRLF. In addition,
the City will couple the BCRLF with its Commercial
Revolving Loan Fund and CDBG funds to address
cleanup and development goals.
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                              City of Columbia, South Carolina
 May 1999                                                                     EPA 500-F-99-060

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