Reuse Of Abandoned Gas Station Sites
INFORMATION SHEET
Gas stations, dotting America's cities and landscape, provide an invaluable product - gasoline - to
power the millions of cars, motorcycles, boats, and other vehicles in our country. But old,
abandoned gas stations can be eyesores and bight communities. Across America, local communities
are grappling with what to do about polluted, abandoned gas stations and other petroleum-
contaminated properties, commonly called petroleum brownfields. Many citizens and businesses shy
away from these properties, fearful of possible lasting effects and the potential liability of
environmental contamination.
EPA and many state and local leaders are committed to sustainable development and preserving
green space by cleaning up and making available for reuse these petroleum brownfields, which are
often located on corner lots and in other prime locations. Reusing abandoned gas stations helps
preserve green space, reduce urban sprawl, and reduce the distance people have to travel, thus
decreasing air pollution.
Conservatively, there are approximately 200,000 abandoned gas stations and other vacant sites with
petroleum contamination that are littering our nation. Once cleaned up, these properties provide an
enormous opportunity to improve the quality of life in neighborhoods all across America.
To address this problem, EPA in 2000 and 2001, awarded USTfields pilot grants of up to $100,000
each to 50 states and tribes - totaling almost $5 million - to assess and cleanup petroleum
brownfields. These grants are spurring partnerships among state and local governments, community
groups, and investors and developers to get sites cleaned up and ready for community use, thereby
eliminating the liability to communities and the continuing threat to public health and the
environment. The USTfields initiative was an important building block which has spawned
additional partnerships to reuse abandoned gas stations.
The 2002 Brownfields law authorizes EPA to give grant money to states and communities so they
can inventory, assess, and clean up petroleum-contaminated brownfields. The money, which is
earmarked for low-risk petroleum sites, complements the USTfields initiative. In 2003, EPA
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provided almost $23 million to states and local governments to assist them in assessing, cleaning up,
and reusing petroleum brownfields. EPA will award new grants in 2004.
EPA has joined forces with states, local communities, and the private sector to reap the benefits of
cleaning up abandoned gas stations and, in their place, create new homes, new businesses, new
parks, and wetlands, community centers and public health clinics. The following examples illustrate
what's been accomplished already and represent the possibilities for future reuse.
New Homes
• Oakland, California - Fruitvale Avenue. Through a partnership with Habitat for Humanity,
the city of Oakland, and EPA, a former gas station with four buried tanks was cleaned up. Now
four new "green" homes, which were built using environmentally sustainable design and
building practices, provide housing for low income families.
• Arlington, Virginia -Clarendon Triangle. Through a public and private partnership, a 1.4 acre
petroleum-contaminated site was cleaned up and redeveloped. Today there is a new, mixed-use
apartment building with over 250 units at this convenient, urban location.
New Businesses
• Nashua, New Hampshire - Whitney Screw. New England's largest bicycle dealer, Goodale's
Bike Shop, is located on a former petroleum-contaminated industrial site. This successful reuse
is the result of federal, state, and local partners working together to improve the aesthetic value
of the local landscape through adaptive reuse of an existing building.
• Milwaukee, Wisconsin - Sherman Perk Coffee Shop. Built in 1939 and operated for two
generations as a gas station, this site was vacant for almost a decade. Because of its historical
significance, the building was restored; it now houses the Sherman Perk Coffee Shop in one of
Milwaukee's most culturally and religiously diverse neighborhoods.
New Parks And Wetlands
• Chicago, Illinois -Abandoned Service Station Management Program. Four unmarketable
surplus properties, which formerly housed gas stations, have been cleaned up and made ready
for reuse. One site was converted into a small park using native plantings. This park is enhancing
the neighborhood and is open to the public for their use and enjoyment.
• Pendleton, Oregon - Brownfield Park. This site was a service station and car dealership garage
from the 1920s to the 1980s. After it was donated to the city of Pendleton, the site was
transformed into a park and gateway to its Riverwalk, which is a pedestrian pathway along the
Umatilla River that travels the length of Pendleton.
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New Community Centers
• Trenton, New Jersey - West Ward Firehouse. An abandoned properly that previously housed
an office to a local newspaper, a pizzeria, and a gas station has been cleaned up. The city built a
new fire station on this reclaimed, 1.5 acre site.
• Clearwater, Florida - Greenwood C ommunity Health Resource C enter. This former gas
station site in North Greenwood contained abandoned underground storage tanks and
contaminated soil. Now there is a community health clinic - where physicians, dentists, and
pharmacists contribute their services and offer community-based health care - on this site,
serving one of the city's most disadvantaged areas.
Ultimately, reusing petroleum brownfields protects the environment, preserves green spaces for
future generations, improves the quality of life in neighborhoods, and promotes economic
development. These types of reuse represent a demonstrated reinvestment in America.
Need More Information?
Contact Steven McNeely (703-603-7164, mcneelj.steven@epa.gov) of EPA's Office of Underground
Storage Tanks.
United States Office of Solid Waste And EPA-510-F-04-001
Environmental Protection Emergency Response February 2004
Agency 5401G www.epa.gov/oust/rags/pb.pdf
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