United States
                   Environmental
                   Protection Agency
                   Washington, D.C. 20460
 Solid Waste
 and Emergency
 Response  (5101)
 EPA 500-F-00-009
 April 2000
 www.epa.gov/brownfields/
  <&EPA  BrownfieldsSupplemental
                   Assistance
                                                               Clearwater,  FL
 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 work together in a timely manner to prevent, assess, safely clean up, and
sustainably reuse brownfields. A brownfield is a site, or portion thereof, that has actual or perceived contamination and
an active potential for redevelopment or reuse. EPA is funding:  assessment demonstration pilot programs (each funded
up to $200,000 over two years), to assess brownfields sites and to test cleanup and redevelopment models; job training
pilot programs (each funded up to $200,000 over two years), to provide training for residents of communities affected
by brownfields to facilitate cleanup of brownfields sites and prepare trainees for future employment in the environmental
field; and, cleanup revolving loan fund programs (each funded up to $500,000 over five years) to capitalize loan funds
to make loans 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 awarded the City of Clearwater supplemental
assistance for  its Brownfields Assessment
Demonstration Pilot and additional funding for
assessments at brownfields properties to be used for
greenspace purposes.  Clearwater's brownfields
activities focus on a conglomeration of small industrial,
commercial, andresidentialentitiesthatwerebuilton
the fill of former wetlands  as  part of urban
redevelopment activities 40 years ago. A large-scale
business exodus from the area now described as the
Clearwater Brownfields Area (CBA) has contributed
to urban decline. The 1,800-acre CBA is located in
a state-designated Enterprise Zone.  Thirty-three
percent of all residents  in  the surrounding
neighborhoods live below the poverty level, and the
area accounts for more than 60 percent of the city's
crime.

The original Clearwater Pilot began assessment and
outreach activities in the CBA, including developing a
strategic environmental justice plan, but additional
funding is needed to continue efforts to revitalize this
critical area in the heart of the city.
PILOT SNAPSHOT
  Clearwater, Florida
 Date of Announcement:
 March 2000

 Amount: $50,000
 Greenspace: $50,000

 Profile:  The Pilot targets
 potentially contaminated
 properties within the 1,800-
 acre Clearwater Brownfields
 Area (CBA).
Contacts:
City Manager's Office
City of Clearwater
(757)562-4023
Regional Brownfields Team
U.S. EPA-Region 4
(404)562-8661
     Visit the EPA Region 4 Brownfields web site at:
 http://www.epa.gov/region4/wastepgs/brownfpgs/bf.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/

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OBJECTIVES AND  PLANNED ACTIVITIES

Clearwater's ultimate objective is to eliminate potential
health and safety hazards by having the CBA sites
cleaned up and returned to productive  reuse, to
benefit the city and its citizens. Clearwater will use
the supplemental assistance Pilot to further this goal
by preparing reuse plans and involving stakeholders,
including affected communities, in the cleanup and
redevelopmentplanningprocess. ThePilotwillselect
sites to target out of 217 potential properties in the
CBA.

The Pilot will use the greenspace funding to support
at least three greenspace creation and  improvement
projects.  One  such project—the Stevenson Creek
Ecosystem Restoration Project and Associated Park
Land—is designed to clean up and restore Stevenson
Creek, which flows through the heart of Clearwater's
largest minority neighborhood and discharges into the
Clearwater Harbor (connected to the Gulf of Mexico).
Clearwater's strategic environmental justice plan has
identified the cleanup and restoration of this creek as
its first priority. Other projects include the creation of
urbanparks, open space, atownpond, andacommunity
center.

To accomplish these objectives, the Pilot plans to:

• Develop reuse plans for selected sites in the CBA;

• Perform Phase I and  II assessments of selected
  greenspace properties; and

• Involve the community and other stakeholders in the
  CBA and greenspace  efforts through meetings,
  forums, newsletters, and a web site.

The cooperative agreement for this Pilot has not yet been negotiated;
therefore, activities described in this factsheetare subject to change.
 Brownfields Supplemental Assistance                                                      Clearwater, Florida
 April 2000                                                                          EPA 500-F-00-009

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