United States Environmental Protection Agency Washington, D.C. 20460 Solid Waste and Emergency Response (5101) EPA 500-F-00-050 April 2000 www.epa.gov/brownfields/ &EPA BrownfieldsSupplemental Assistance St. Louis, MO 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 St. Louis supplemental assistance for its Brownfields Assessment Demonstration Pilot. Overthepast45 years, the City of St. Louis has lost half of its j obs and two-thirds of its population to areas outside St. Louis. This has resulted in urban decay and a substantial reduction in the city's tax base. The city's Land Redevelopment Authority has inventoried more than 9,000 vacant sites and 2,500 abandoned buildings. Many of the vacant sites are brownfields for which the city lacks the resources for assessment and cleanup. OBJECTIVES AND PLANNED ACTIVITIES The Pilot will use supplemental assistance to expand St. Louis' s brownfields initiative to the NorthRiverfront Industrial Corridor. The four-mile-long industrial corridor, located immediately north of downtown St. Louis, contains more than 1,400 parcels of land, 630 businesses, several dozen households, a river port, and an unknown number of brownfields. The goal of the Pilot is to encourage redevelopment of properties in the area that have been abandoned and remain undeveloped because of real or perceived environmental contamination. PILOT SNAPSHOT St. Louis, Missouri Date of Announcement: March 2000 Amount: $100,000 Profile: The Pilot will target the four-mile-long North Riverfront Industrial Corridor, an old industrial section of St. Louis that is a major focus of the city's economic development initiative. Contacts: Planned Industrial Expansion Authority St. Louis Development Corporation (314)259-3454 Visit the EPA Region 7 Brownfields web site at: http://www.epa.gov/region07/specinit/brown/brownfields.htm Regional Brown fields Team U.S. EPA - Region 7 (913)551-7786 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/ ------- To accomplish these objectives, the Pilot plans to: • Conduct an area-wide characterization to identify potential brownfields within the corridor; • Develop a Geographic Information System (GIS) database and map of the Pilot area to help identify potential brownfields and develop reuse plans for the area; • Conduct Phase I and Phase II site assessments on properties targeted for development by the private sector or a government agency; and • Conduct public outreach for corridor residents and businesses that will include holding public meetings and distributing Pilot information materials. 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 St. Louis, Missouri April 2000 EPA 500-F-00-050 ------- |