»EPA
United States
Environmental Protection
Agency
Solid Waste
and Emergency
Response (5105-T)
EPA500-F-02-148
October 2002
www.epa.gov/brownfields/
SEPA
United States Environmental Protection Agency,
Christine Todd Whitman, Administrator
For more information on the Brownfie
accomplishments please visit
pa.gov/brownfiel
ram and its
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. (202) 566-2777
rownfields
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(212) 637-4314
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(404) 562-8661
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(973) 551-7786
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(415) 744-2237
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The Brownfields Program:
Setting Change in Motion
Redeveloped Airborne and
Special Operations Museum,
Fayetteville, NC.
A Brownfield 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."
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Redeveloped East St. Anthony's Village,
Minneapolis, Hennepin County MN,
EPA's Brownfields Program 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 property,
the expansion, redevelopment, or reuse
of which may be complicated by the
presence or potential presence of a
hazardous substance, pollutant, or
contaminant. EPA's Brownfields Program
provides financial and technical
assistance for brownfields revitalization,
including grants for environmental
assessment, cleanup, and job training.
The Beginnings of EPA's
Brownfields Program
Since its inception in 1995, EPA's Brownfields
Initiative has grown into a proven, results-oriented
program that has changed the way
contaminated property is perceived, addressed,
and managed. Through passage of the
Brownfields Revitalization Act in 2002, effective
policy was turned into law. As it did from its first
days, EPA's Brownfields Program reflects a new
model of environmental stewardship that protects
the environment, promotes partnership,
strengthens the marketplace, and sustains reuse.
Initially, EPA provided small amounts of seed
money to local governments that launched
hundreds of two-year brownfields "pilots" —
building capacity and partnerships at the local
level, while developing innovative approaches to
brownfields issues. In addition to these pilot
projects, EPA tested several other tools during the
Protecting the Environment
Addressing brownfields to ensure the health and well-being
of America's people and environment.
Promoting Partnerships
Collaborating and communicating are essential to
facilitate brownfields cleanup and reuse.
Strengthening the Marketplace
Providing financial and technical assistance
to bolster the private market.
Sustaining Reuse
Redeveloping brownfields to enhance a
community's long-term quality of
life.
early years of the Brownfields Program, including
providing guidance and policy clarifications on
Superfund liability, removing thousands of properties
from its Superfund database, providing technical
assistance and resources to enhance state and tribal
voluntary cleanup programs, and promoting
partnerships across the country.
These trial efforts proved the value of collaboration
among federal, state, and local entities to address lesser
contaminated properties. When the Brownfields
Revitalization Act was signed into law on January 11,
2002, EPA and its partners had clearly demonstrated
that common sense approaches were the best way to
help American cities handle their own economic
destinies with a federal safety net to ensure
environmental protection. By January 2002, the
investment in EPA's Brownfields Program—less than $400
million—had leveraged $3.7 billion in brownfields
cleanup and redevelopment funding from the private
and public sectors and created more than 15,000 new
jobs, often in economically disadvantaged areas that
needed them most. More than 3,500 properties had
been assessed, approximately one-third of which were
found to have no significant contamination, or levels so
low they required no cleanup prior to the property's
reuse. And every acre of reused brownfields preserved
an estimated 4.5 acres of unused green space.
Wellston Housing Project St. Louis, MO.
Former Post Office transformed into Consumer
Energy Headquarters, Jackson County, Ml.
EPA's Brownfields Program Today
The Brownfields Revitalization Act provides new tools for
the public and private sector to promote sustainable
brownfields cleanup and reuse. Brownfields grants will
continue to serve as the foundation of EPA's Brownfields
Program. In addition to the brownfields grants
summarized below, EPA will continue to test out other
possible innovations.
• Assessment Grants provide funding for brownfield
inventories, planning, environmental assessments,
and community outreach.
• Revolving Loan Fund Grants provide funding to
capitalize loans that are used to clean up
brownfields.
• Cleanup Grants provide direct funding for cleanup
activities at certain properties with planned green
space, recreation, or other nonprofit reuses.
• Job Training Grants provide environmental training
for residents of brownfields communities.
The law also codified many of the policies that EPA has
developed over the years to provide clarification about
and protection from CERCLA liability for certain
innocent landowners, prospective purchasers,
contiguous property owners, and others who conduct
contaminated property cleanups under a state or
tribe's voluntary response program.
A Promising Future
The momentum generated by EPA's brownfields
grants, policies, and technical assistance is leaving
an enduring legacy—leveraging state, local, and
private investment long after federal funds are
expended.
Across the country, communities once impacted
by brownfields now benefit through local
environmental job training programs.
Environmental assessments conducted through
the grant program have removed contamination
and liability uncertainties from thousands of
properties resulting in billions of dollars in cleanup
and redevelopment funding leveraged from the
private and public sectors. EPA's Brownfields
Program helps reduce hopelessness with
community empowerment and economic
revitalization, and enables disadvantaged
neighborhoods to succeed by providing
incentives and removing obstacles to strengthen
the marketplace and sustain reuse. Under its
Revitalization Agenda, EPA is instilling the concept
of land stewardship to ensure consideration of the
full, sustainable life-cycle of all properties
addressed by EPA's waste programs.
"(The Brownfields Revifalizafion Acf is a)
sensible piece of legislation, one fhaf
emphasizes fhe need for environmenfal
stewardship all across fhe country."
- President George W. Bush
January 11,2002
Enhancing State and
Tribal Capacity for
Continued Success
EPA's Brownfields Program builds and
enhances state and tribal capacity by:
• Providing financial support for states and tribes to
develop and enhance their voluntary response
programs;
• Providing protection from federal Superfund liability at
properties addressed under state voluntary response
programs; and
Forming effective partnerships with state and tribal
governments to bolster efforts to clean up brownfield
properties under the Brownfields Revitalization Act orthrough
Memoranda of Agreement (MOA) with individual states.
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