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Brownfields 2006
Grant Fact Sheet
Kansas City Port
Authority, MO
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 Kansas City Port Authority was selected to
receive two brownfields cleanup grants. Kansas City
has targeted sites within the former Richards-Gebauer
Air Force Base for cleanup. The base is located in
Jackson and Cass Counties, approximately 18 miles
south of downtown Kansas City and two miles east of
the Kansas-Missouri state line. The target community
consists of the City of Belton, located immediately
south of the base, and the City of Grandview, immedi-
ately northeast of the base. Belton is an outer-ring blue
collar suburb of Kansas City with a rapidly increasing
Latino population. Grandview is an old, inner-ring
suburb of Kansas City with a declining tax base and
retail businesses. Between 1990 and 2000, the minor-
Cleanup Grants
$400,000 for hazardous substances
EPA has selected the Kansas City Port Authority
for two brownfields cleanup grants. Grant funds
will be used to conduct community outreach
activities, design a cleanup strategy, and imple-
ment cleanup of the former Richards-Gebaur
Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) proper-
ties, known as the BRAC Site, a total of approxi-
mately 185 acres of land transferred by the U.S.
Air Force to the City of Kansas City. The BRAC
Site is contaminated with hazardous substances
and electrical equipment suspected to contain
PCBs. Grant funds also will be used to clean up
two landfills, the Northeast Landfill and the
South Conterminous Area, within the Formerly
Used Defense Sites (FUDS) of the former Air
Force base.
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 7 Brownfields Team
800-223-0425
http://www.epa.gov/Region7/citizens/brownfields/
index.htm
Grant Recipient: Port Authority of Kansas City,
MO
816-691-2115
The cooperative agreement for this grant has not
yet been negotiated; therefore, activities described
in this fact sheet are subject to change.
ity population of Grandview has grown from 20 to 40
percent of the city's population. During the same
period, poverty increased by 25 percent. In the area
immediately north of the base, 32 percent of families
live in poverty. Cleanup of the BRAC properties and
Solid Waste and
Emergency Response
(5105T)
EPA560-F-06-160
May 2006
www.epa.gov/brownfields
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the two landfills on the FUDS site will help catalyze a
large public-private initiative to redevelop the
Richards-Gebauer Air Force Base. Revitalization plans
call for a state-of-the-art intermodal distribution facility
and a light-industrial and commercial business com-
plex. It is anticipated that these facilities will lead to
the creation of over 4,000 living-wage permanent jobs
and thousands of construction jobs, creating new
economic opportunities and expanding the local tax
base.
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