United States
Environmental
Protection Agency
Washington, D.C. 20460
Solid Waste
and Emergency
Response (5105)
EPA 500-F-00-256
December 2000
www.epa.gov/brownfields/
<&EPA Brownfields Assessment
Demonstration Pilot
Boston, MA
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 selected the City of Boston for a Brownfields
Pilot. The city's Brownfields Partnership Task Force
is providing funding to the Brownfields Economic
Redevelopment Initiative (BERI). This initiative has
focused on the Dudley Street Neighborhood (DSN)
located in the heart of the Roxbury and North
Dorchester areas of Boston. The DSN is the principal
business center for Boston's African-American
community, yet it suffers from greater unemployment
(30 percent) than other Boston neighborhoods. The
DSN also bears a disproportionate number of
Massachusetts' contaminated siteswith 4 percent
of the state's population, the DSN contains nine
percent of the state's listed contaminated sites.
Thirteen hundred vacant lots, many of which are
contaminated with lead paint waste, extend over the
1.5 square miles of the DSN area.
OBJECTIVES
The City of Boston is addressing brownfields as part
of amulti-dimensional strategy to revitalize the Dudley
Street Neighborhood. Various neighborhood groups
and agencies are working together as members of
BERI to direct economic growth to redevelop
brownfields. These groups include: the City of Boston;
PI LOT SNAPSHOT
Boston, Massachusetts
Date of Announcement:
September 1995
Amount: $200,000
Profile: The Pilottargetsthe
Dudley Street Neighborhood,
which contains approximately
1,300 vacant lots, many of
which are contaminated.
Contacts:
Boston Brownfields Coordinator
Boston City Hall
(617)918-4307
U.S. EPA-Region 1
(617)918-1210
Visit the EPA Region 1 Brownfields web site at:
http://www.epa.gov/region01/remed/brnfld/
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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the Boston Redevelopment Authority; EPA Region
1; the Dudley Street Neighborhood Initiative; el Nuestra
Comunidad Development Corporation; the Alternative
for Community & Environment, Inc.; the Environmental
Diversity Forum; the Commonwealth of
Massachusetts' Office of the Attorney General, the
Department of Environmental Protection, the
Department of Capital Planning and Operations; and
the University of Massachusetts.
ACCOMPLISHMENTS AND ACTIVITIES
The Pilot has:
Developed a brownfields map of an approximately
1.5-square-mile area encompassing the Dudley
Street Neighborhood Initiative core, parts of Dudley
Square, and North Dorchester, (this map was
designed to aid the Pilot in identifying potential
brownfields);
Identified approximately l,300vacantlotswithinthe
DSN, and identified and researched more than 80
sites as part of the site-selection process;
Targeted seven sites for the project: Freedom
Electronics, Modern Electroplating, Clifton Street
Bakery, Hampden Street, and Simon's Lot, Parcel
P-3, and Crosstown Center;
Conducted historical reviews, site visits, and other
investigations for eight sites in the target area;
Collected and stored information for the five targeted
sites in a geographic information system (GIS),
including economic assets, contamination levels,
zoning, and nearby transportation systems such as
the subway, bus terminals, thoroughfares, and
commuter rail lines;
Conducted community outreach meetings to obtain
feedback regarding redevelopment at the targeted
sites; and
Created an outreach package about the targeted
area to encourage participation from stakeholders.
The package includes information on government
grants and loans, relevant legislation, initiatives by
the city, and a list of brownfields site attributes.
The Pilot is:
Initiating site assessment activities at the Parcel P-
3 and Crosstown Center sites;
Developing a community outreach program
regarding Pilotactivities;
Investigating ways to secure assessment and cleanup
funding and promote environmental compliance
assurance for the targeted sites; and
Developing a strategy for redeveloping brownfields
that builds on previous brownfields redevelopment
efforts and institutionalizes brownfields activities.
LEVERAGING OTHER ACTIVITIES
Experience with the Boston Pilot has been a catalyst
for related activities, including the following:
The city has embarked on several capital
improvements in the DSN and has secured federal
Enterprise Community (EC) funds to assist in the
economic revitalization of Roxbury and other areas.
The city plans to encourage development of jobs
and the economy within the DSN by addressing
cleanup of the area's brownfields.
Phase I and Phase II assessments, funded by the
Department of Neighborhood Development, were
conducted on the Freedom Electronics property.
The designation of the Freedom Electronics property
as an Overall Economic Development Project by
the Metropolitan Area Planning Council has allowed
the city to apply for and receive a $750,000 grant
from the Economic Development Administration to
use toward cleanup, demolition, construction, land
filling, or other developmentactivities on theproperty.
EPA funded a Phase I and partial Phase II
assessment at the Modern Electroplating site through
the Targeted Brownfields Assessment program.
In 1999, the Department of Housing and Urban
Development awarded Boston $6.8 million in
Brownfields Economic Development Initiative
funding to redevelop the Modern Electroplating site
Brownfields Assessment Demonstration Pilot
December 2000
Boston, Massachusetts
EPA 500-F-00-256
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($ 1.75 million in grant funding and $5.05 million in
HUD loan guarantees). The City of Boston and the
Boston Redevelopment Authority will use these
funds to turn the site into a commercial development
and parking facility. Businesses and other local,
state, and federal government agencies are expected
to invest more than $8.72 million in additional funds.
The total project is expected to create an estimated
l,200jobs.
STRIVE-Boston Employment Service, Inc., was
awarded an additional $200,000 as one of EPA's
Brownfields Job Training and Development
Demonstration Pilots.
Boston was awarded a $500,000 grant under EPA's
Brownfields Cleanup Revolving Loan Fund Pilot
program.
The Pilot program provided information to the State
Brownfields Committee, which drafted brownfields
legislation forthe city.
Brownfields Assessment Demonstration Pilot Boston, Massachusetts
December 2000 EPA 500-F-00-256
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