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Brownfields 2006
Grant Fact Sheet
Durham, NC
EPA Brownfields Program
EPA's Brownfields Program empowers states, commu-
nities, and other stakeholders to work together to
prevent, assess, safely clean up, and sustainably reuse
brownfields. Abrownfield site is real property, the
expansion, redevelopment, or reuse of which may be
complicated by the presence or potential presence of a
hazardous substance, pollutant, or contaminant. On
January 11, 2002, President George W. Bush signed
into law the Small Business Liability Relief and
Brownfields Revitalization Act. Under the
Brownfields Law, EPA provides financial assistance to
eligible applicants through four competitive grant
programs: assessment grants, revolving loan fund
grants, cleanup grants, and job training grants. Addi-
tionally, funding support is provided to state and tribal
response programs through a separate mechanism.
Community Description
The City of Durham was selected to receive a brown-
fields assessment grant. Durham (population 187,035),
generally mirrors the average household income and
low unemployment and poverty rates of North Caro-
lina. Northeast Central Durham (NECD), the assess-
ment target area, is very different. Eighty-eight percent
of its 9,421 residents are minorities, the unemploy-
ment and poverty rates are 15 and 36 percent, respec-
tively, and the median household income is 41 percent
of the city median. The NECD area has one of the
highest crime rates and highest school dropout rates in
the city. Once a thriving residential and business
community built around manufacturing and mill
facilities, the area has homes that are now mostly in
disrepair. Many of the area's industrial and commer-
cial buildings are vacant and underutilized. The
Assessment Grant
$200,000 for hazardous substances
EPA has selected the City of Durham for a
brownfields assessment grant. Grant funds will
be used to conduct community outreach, perform
Phase I and II environmental site assessments,
and prepare cleanup and redevelopment plans for
sites in the Pettigrew Street Corridor of Northeast
Central Durham. Funds also will be used to
monitor the health of surrounding populations.
Contacts
For further information, including specific grant
contacts, additional grant information, brownfields
news and events, and publications and links, visit
the EPA Brownfields web site at: www.epa.gov/
brownfields.
EPA Region 4 Brownfields Team
404-562-8866
http://www.epa.gov/region4/waste/bf/index.htm
Grant Recipient: City of Durham, NC
919-560-4965, ext. 224
The cooperative agreement for this grant has not
yet been negotiated; therefore, activities described
in this fact sheet are subject to change.
Pettigrew Street Corridor is located near the proposed
Triangle Transit Authority rail station, one of the eight
stations being built as part of a commuter line that links
the Cities of Durham, Raleigh, and Gary. Assessment of
the Corridor sites will help the city identify and quan-
tify environmental issues associated with the sites,
thereby facilitating their cleanup and reuse. Plans for
the area call for transforming the brownfields sites into
a community-based retail and commercial complex that
will encourage residential development in close
proximity to primary shopping and employment
centers, with landscaping to reduce run-off and exces-
sive erosion.
Solid Waste and
Emergency Response
(5105T)
EPA 560-F-06-078
May 2006
www.epa.gov/brownfields
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