United States
Environmental
Protection Agency
Washington, D.C. 20460
Solid Waste
and Emergency
Response (5101)
EPA 500-F-00-045
April 2000
www.epa.gov/brownfields/
vvEPA Brownfields Supplemental
Assistance
Seattle/King County, WA
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 Seattle/King County
supplemental assistance for its Brownfields
Assessment DemonstrationPilot and additional funding
for assessments at brownfields properties to be used
for greenspace purposes. The Pilot will continue to
focus on cleanup and redevelopment in the three King
County Manufacturing and Industrial Centers,
particularly the Duwamish industrial corridor, the
most highly concentrated industrial area in the State
of Washington. The corridor encompasses more than
8,500 acres, 65 percent of which are in the City of
Seattle, and contains more than 200 contaminated
properties. Much of the contamination resulted from
manufacturing activities in the 1930s and 1940s, fuel
leakage from both underground and above-ground
storage tanks, and the cumulative impact of intense
vehicular and aircraft traffic around the King County
airport/Boeing Field complex.
The corridor contains 2,000 businesses that provide
nearly 87,000jobs and that produce an annual payroll
of approximately $2.5 billion. Of the nearly 12,000
residents living in the corridor, 3 0 percent are minorities
and 19 percent live below the poverty level.
PILOT SNAPSHOT
Seattle/KingCounty,
Washington
Date of Announcement:
March 2000
Amount: $150,000
Greenspace: $50,000
Profile: The Pilot will target
brownfields properties in the
County's Manufacturing and
Industrial Centers to provide
assistance in addressing
com plexwater contamination
issues and integrating the
requirements of the
Endangered Species Act.
Contacts:
King County Office of U.S. EPA - Region 10
Regional Policy and Planning (206) 553-6523
(206)205-0707
Visit the EPA Region 10 Brownfields web site at:
http://epainotes1.rtpnc.epa.gov:7777/MO/
cleanup.nsf/webpage/Brownfields
Forfurther 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/
-------
OBJECTIVES AND PLANNED ACTIVITIES
King County and the City of Seattle's overall strategy
for brownfields redevelopment is to implement a
range of systemic solutions that address regulatory
and other institutional barriers to cleanup and
redevelopment. The Pilot will use the funds to
address recurring problems the original Assessment
Pilot has faced in facilitating public and private sector
brownfields assessment, cleanup, and redevelopment
proj ects. One such difficulty is that interested parties
are often overwhelmed by the complexity of assessing
certain brownfields properties and are unwilling to
invest time and money for a full assessment. Other
challenges involve addressing water contamination
issues and integrating the requirements of the
Endangered Species Act (ESA) into projects at specific
sites. King County and the City of Seattle plan to use
the supplemental funds to deal with these issues and
help interested parties perform the up-front evaluations
of the sites.
The Pilot will use greenspace funding for two proj ects.
One project will assess two parcels (totaling 71 acres)
that were once the home of a methamphetamine lab
and a car body "chop shop" and restore them to
critical wildlife habit as part of King County's
Waterways 2000 program and will restore critical
wildlife habitat, including cool, clean waterfor salmon
runs downstream. The second project will assist the
Boulevard Park Community Council in assessing a
former dry cleaning/gas station site with the goal of
converting it to a neighborhood park.
To accomplish these objectives, the Pilots plans to:
• Continue to conduct assessments that will facilitate
cleanup and redevelopment:
• Provide a Forgivable Loan Program to qualifying
brownfields projects to assess the environmental
conditions of the property;
• Perform in-depth assessments for priority
brownfields projects, including area-wide
groundwater analyses and ESA compliance
coordination; and
• Continue to conduct outreach to members of the
business and residential communities impacted by
brownfields contamination.
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
April 2000
Seattle/King County, Washington
EPA 500-F-00-045
------- |