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  Brownfields  2006

  Grant  Fact  Sheet

       Springfield,  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 City of Springfield was selected to receive a
brownfields assessment grant. Springfield (population
151,580) has identified 574 brownfields sites just
within the 300-acre Jordan Valley Park area, the
former industrial center of the city. Other parts of the
older Springfield community, in the city's center and
northern Springfield, also are plagued with abandoned
and underutilized sites that once housed industrial
operations, gas stations, scrap yards, and other com-
mercial activity. Forty-six percent of the city's resi-
dents live in the neighborhoods surrounding these
blighted target areas. The poverty rate (21.5 percent)
among this population is 26 percent higher than the
city's rate, the median household income is 47 percent
of the city's median, and the unemployment rate is
more than twice the city-wide rate. Assessment and
 Assessment  Grant
 $200,000 for petroleum

 EPA has selected the City of Springfield for a
 brownfields assessment grant. Petroleum grant
 funds will be used to conduct community out-
 reach activities, develop a technical sampling
 plan and health and safety plans, perform 15
 Phase I and five Phase II environmental site
 assessments, and develop cleanup and reuse
 strategies for sites within the city's designated
 brownfields area.
 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: City of Springfield, MO
 417-864-1844

 The cooperative agreement for this grant has not
 yet been negotiated; therefore, activities described
 in this fact sheet are subject to change.
eventual cleanup and redevelopment of the brownfields
is expected to help eliminate hazards, raise property
values, and provide a place for new businesses and jobs
in the community. The city hopes to build on the
success of an earlier phase of the Jordan Valley Park
redevelopment, which  included new park lands,
recreational venues, hotel facilities, and housing, and
generated approximately 1,000 jobs and $200 million
in investments.
                                                  Solid Waste and
                                                  Emergency Response
                                                  (5105T)
                         EPA560-F-06-161
                         May 2006
                         www.epa.gov/brownfields

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