United States Environmental Protection Agency Washington, D.C. 20460 Solid Waste and Emergency Response (5105) EPA 500-F-01-299 April 2001 www.epa.gov/brownfields/ <&EPA Brownfields Supplemental Assistance Utlca, NY Outreach and Special Projects Staff (5105) Quick Reference Fact Sheet EPA's Brownfields Economic Redevelopment Initiative is designed to empower states, communities, and other stakeholders in economic redevelopment to worktogether in atimelymannerto prevent, assess, and safely clean up brownfieldsto promote their sustainable reuse. Brownfields are abandoned, idled, or under-used industrial and commercial facilities where expansion or redevelopment is complicated by real orperceivedenvironmentalcontamination.EPAisfunding: assessment demonstration pilot programs (each funded up to $200,000 over two years, with additional funding provided for greenspace), to test assessment models and facilitate coordinated assessment and cleanup efforts at the federal, state, tribal, and local levels; and job training pilot programs (each funded up to $200,000 over two years), to provide training for residents of communities affected by brownfieldsto facilitate cleanup of brownfields sites and preparetraineesforfuture employment intheenvironmental field; and, a cleanup revolving loan fund program (each funded up to $1,000,000 over five years) to provide financial assistance for the 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 EPA has selected the City of Utica to receive supplemental assistance for its Brownfields Assessment Demonstration Pilot. Utica is a relatively small metropolitan area located along the Mohawk River and Erie Canal. In the 1800s and early 1900s, the majority of businesses were paper and textile milling companies. In the mid- 19008, the area began to support high-tech manufacturing and the textile mills began to shut down. Like many industrial cities in the northeast, Utica (population 61,368) has experienced a significant decline in its tax and job base over the past 50 years. Today, most textile mills are closed or being used by different businesses, and most high-tech industries have moved out of the state. While many of the abandoned industrial sites in Utica have known contamination, others are only perceived to be contaminated. One area that has many brownfields is the Broad Street Corridor, an old industrial area where some redevelopmenthas begun. The city has formed a partnership with the Utica Municipal Housing Authority and Oneida County to implement Utica's new Gateway Plan, which merges the housing and economic PILOT SNAPSHOT Date of Award: April 2001 Amount: $150,000 Profile: The Pilot plans to assessthreebrownfieldssites inthe Gateway-Corridor area of Utica to help spur their cleanupand redevelopment and revitalize the area. Utica, New York Contacts: City of Utica, Urban and Economic Development Agency (315)792-0152 Regional Brownfields Team U.S. EPA - Region 2 (212)637-4314 Visit the EPA Region 2 Brownfields web site at: http://www.epa.gov/r02earth/superfnd/brownfld/bfmainpg.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/ ------- development objectives. These objectives will be achieved, in part, by reusing the area's brownfields. Further, the city hopes to attract technology-based industry with its comprehensive fiber optic network, which surrounds the areas considered in the Gateway Plan and the Broad Street Corridor Initiative. OBJECTIVES AND PLANNED ACTIVITIES The City of Uticaplans to use supplemental assistance funds to spur cleanup and revitalization of the Broad Street Corridor area as well as the area encompassed in the Gateway Plan (Gateway-Corridor area) by assessing three area brownfield sites. The city has recently refocused its brownfields efforts from single- site redevelopment to a broader community-based redevelopment effort, which has resulted in the identification and historical review of brownfields within the Broad Street Corridor. The Pilot plans to: • Complete Phase I and Phase II environmental assessments on three sites in the targeted area: the Goldbas site, the Durr Packing site, and the Schuyler Street property; and • Identify cleanup levels and obj ectives and develop a cleanup plan for each site. The cooperative agreement for this Pilot has not yet been negotiated; therefore, activities described in this fact sheet are subject to change. Brownfields Supplemental Assistance Utica, New York April 2001 EPA 500-F-01-299 ------- |