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 ------- |