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Brownfields 2008
Grant Fact Sheet
Durham, NC
EPA Brownfields Program
EPA's Brownfields Program empowers states, commu-
nities, and other stakeholders in economic development
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 con-
taminant. On January 11, 2002, President George W.
Bush signed into law the Small Business Liability Relief
and Brownfields Revitalization Act. Under this 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. The brownfields job training grants
provide residents of communities impacted by
brownfields with the skills and training needed to
effectively gain employment in assessment and cleanup
activities associated with brownfield redevelopment and
environmental remediation. Additionally, 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 job
training grant. Located in central North Carolina,
Durham (population 187,035) is focusing its job training
recruitment efforts on residents of the Pettigrew Street
Corridor of Northeast Central Durham. Once a thriving
Job Training Grant
$200,000
EPA has selected the City of Durham for a job
training grant. Durham plans to recruit at least 60
residents, train 48 students, place at least 65
percent of graduates in environmental jobs, and
track graduates for a minimum of one year. The
training program will consist of three four-week,
160-hour training cycles that will include training
in HAZWOPER, field testing and equipment, lead
worker awareness, and soil and water manage-
ment. The primary trainer will be Durham Techni-
cal Community College. Students will be recruited
from unemployed and underemployed residents of
Northeast Central Durham, primarily from the
Pettigrew Street Corridor. The city will work with
the Durham JobLink Career Center, North
Carolina Department of Environment and Natural
Resources, and North Carolina Department of
Labor's Bureau of Apprenticeship to place
graduates in environmental jobs.
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.
Kathleen Curry, EPA Region 4
404-562-8660
http://www.epa.gov/region4/waste/bf/index.htm
Grant Recipient: 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.
residential and business community, Northeast Central
Durham has suffered from neglect as residents moved
to the suburbs and industrial facilities closed. The area
contains a number of brownfields, including scrap
Solid Waste and
Emergency Response
(5105T)
EPA 560-F-08-230
March 2008
www.epa.gov/brownfields
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yards, garages, and vacant and abandoned industrial
facilities. In this community, more than 36 percent of
residents live in poverty, and the unemployment rate is
15 percent. Eighty-eight percent of residents are
minorities. The Durham community has designed a
revitalization strategy for this 96-block area that
includes brownfields redevelopment. A labor market
survey has shown that there will be a demand for
program graduates with training in solid waste manage-
ment, field testing and equipment, and other environ-
mental technician skills.
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