United States
Environmental
Protection Agency
Washington, D.C. 20460
Solid Waste
and Emergency
Response (5101)
EPA 500-F-00-047
April 2000
www.epa.gov/brownfields/
<&EPA Brownfields Supplemental
Assistance
Shreveport, LA
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 Shreveport supplemental
assistance for its Brownfields Assessment
Demonstration Pilot and additional funding for
assessments at brownfield properties to be used for
greenspace purposes. Shreveport (population 198,525)
is the state's third largest city and is located at the
crossroads of major rail and highway systems that
transport large volumes ofhazardous materials. During
the regional decline of the oil industry in the 1980s,
Shreveport lost 10,000 jobs, many of them located in
the older inner-city industrial area. The inner city
contained hundreds of acres of industrial sites that
remained vacant due in part to the presence or threat
of contamination. The urban core, designated a local
Empowerment Zone, had an unemployment rate of
20 percent and a poverty rate of 40 percent in 1995-
1996.
The supplemental assistance funds will be used to
continue to prepare downtown brownfields sites for
redevelopment—at the Biomedical Research
Foundation InterTech Area and other neighborhoods
to be targeted. In addition, the supplemental assistance
will be used to prepare the Cross Bayou area for
reuse as greenspace with trails and parks.
PILOT SNAPSHOT
Shreveport, Louisiana
Date of Announcement:
March 2000
Amount: $150,000
Greenspace: $50,000
Profile: The Pi lot targets two
brownfields in the Biomedical
Research Foundation InterTech
area, will identify other
neighborhoods to target for
redevelopment, and will help
prepare the Cross Bayou area
for reuse as greenspace.
Contacts:
City of Shreveport
Community Development
(318)673-5900
Regional Brownfields Team
U.S. EPA-Region 6
(214)665-6736
Visit the EPA Region 6 Brownfields web site at:
http://www.epa.gov/earth1r6/6sf/bfpages/sfbfhome.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
Shreveport's goal is to create healthy, safe, and
sustainable communities through public-private
partnerships and community participation in all
brownfields cleanup and revitalization activities. The
Biomedical Research Foundation InterTech area, a
target for this supplemental assistance, is part of the
city's revitalization strategy. Greenspace projects
will complement the overall brownfields initiative and
will primarily be targeted at the Cross Bayou Corridor,
which was a core neighborhood targeted in the
original Pilot.
To accomplish these objectives, the Pilot plans to:
• Perform Phase I and II environmental assessments
on two properties in the InterTech area;
• Identify and conduct environmental assessments on
other priority brownfields;
• Expand the Geographical Information System (GIS)
database for a comprehensive inventory of
brownfields across the city; and
• Perform Phase I and II environmental assessments
on properties at the Cross Bayou area to prepare the
site for reuse as greenspace with trails and parks.
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 Shreveport, Louisiana
April 2000 EPA 500-F-00-047
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