&EPA
United States
Environmental
Protection Agency
Washington, D.C. 20460
Solid Waste
and Emergency
Response (5105)
EPA500-F-01-225
June 2001
www.epa.gov/brownfields/
Outreach and Special Projects Staff (5105)
Brownfields Success Stories
Intervention Equals Prevention
in Shreveport
SHREVEPORT LA
fter nearly $1.3 million in cleanup and redevelopment fund-
ing, the former HICA steel foundry and upgrade company has been
upgraded and renovated into the new HICA Steel Castings, LLC,
with owners committed to running an environmentally safe opera-
tion in the Cedar Grove neighborhood of Shreveport, Louisiana.
Much of the success in this restoration stems from a public-private
partnership involving the Shreveport Brownfields Pilot, which was
initiated by a $200,000 EPA grant as part of the Agency's Brownfields
Initiative.
The HICA steel foundry consists of several properties grouped to-
gether as a single site. Built in the 1960s, the original steel foundry
had been successful until the early 1990s, when operations began
to decline due to market conditions. With poverty rates for sur-
rounding residents reaching as high as 75%, the area was desig-
nated as a state Enterprise Zone, and the HICA facility eventually
shut down in 1996. A proposal emerged to try and reopen a portion
of the facility to cater to a more viable market, but fears of environ-
mental contamination proved to be a formidable obstacle.
EPA's Brownfields Pilot award in June, 1996 enabled a prospective
purchaser to evaluate the extent of the site's environmental pollu-
tion. The Pilot also facilitated review and approvals from EPA and
continued ^
JUST THE FACTS:
• Built in the 1960s, the HICA steel foundry had
been successful until the early 1990s, but
eventually shut down in 1996.
• Fears of environmental contamination kept
potential developers away from the property.
• Pilot and other assessments of the site
eventually leveraged more than $1 million in
cleanup and redevelopment funding.
The site's $360,000 cleanup was
funded entirely by the facility's
previous owners, while the Pilot
sought regulatory approvals and
agreements between EPA and the
Louisiana Department of
Environmental Quality to allow
redevelopment to proceed.
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.
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the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality to revitalize the
HICA facility.
Previous and current owners of the site spent at least $10,000 in
additional assessments, discovering several contaminants at the older
facility, including: hazardous air pollution sludge from foundry
furnaces; chemicals (lead, mercury, chromium, arsenic); and pick-
ling agents/processing chemicals such as hydrofluoric acid and pick-
ling liquor. The resulting cleanup involved removal of the contami-
nants, excavation, off-site disposal, and capping the site with asphalt.
This $360,000 cleanup effort was funded entirely by the facility's pre-
vious owners, while the Pilot sought regulatory approvals and agree-
ments between EPA and the Louisiana Department of Environmental Qual-
ity to allow redevelopment to proceed. Through its business development pro-
gram, the city then provided $200,000 from U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Devel-
opment Community Development Block Grant funds to finance HICA's resurrection, while
a local bank provided a $620,000 loan.
The upgraded, renovated HICA facility currently employs 50-60
people, and the total number of jobs is expected to reach
250 within 2-3 years. The city's workforce devel-
opment unit also provides the facility with em-
ployees through the "On the Job Training-Job
Training Partnership Act" (OJT-JTPA) pro-
gram, which pays half the salary of OJT
employees for their first six months of
employment. The site has enjoyed vast
visual improvements due to painting and
landscaping efforts, and the surrounding
area has experienced a reduction in crime.
The remaining properties on the site are cur-
rently being marketed for sale/redevelopment,
and the new HICA facility is considering expand-
ing its operations to one of these locations.
Thanks to timely intervention, restoring this brownfields property involved a strong ele-
ment of prevention, as opposed to cure, and Shreveport is reaping the benefits. For more
information on the Shreveport Brownfields Pilot, contact Stan Hitt of EPA Region 6 at
(214) 665-6736, or Sum Arigala with the City of Shreveport at (318) 673-7552.
CONTACTS:
City of Shreveport
(318)673-7552
EPA Region 6
(214)665-6736
Visit the EPA Brownfields Web site at:
http://www.epa.gov/brownfields/
Brownfields Success Story
June 2001
Shreveport, LA
EPA 500-F-01-225
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