United States
                       Environmental
                       Protection Agency
                       Washington, D.C. 20460
Solid Waste
and Emergency
Response (5101)
EPA 500-F-97-046
May 1997
                       Regional  Brownfields
                       Assessment  Pilot
                                                               Buffalo,  NY
  Outreach and Special Projects Staff (5101)
               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. Between 1995 and 1996, EPA funded 76 National and Regional Brownfields
Assessment Pilots, at up to $200,000 each, to support creative two-year explorations and demonstrations of brownfields
solutions. EPAis funding morethan 27 Pilots in 1997. The Pilots 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 Region 2 selected the City of Buffalo for a
Regional Brownfields Pilot. Economic decline and
contaminated industrial sites have negatively impacted
the quality of life for residents. The City of 328,000
residents bears  a disproportionate  number of
contaminated sites — over 60 in the Comprehensive
Environmental  Response, Compensation, and
Liability Information System (CERCLIS), as well as
over 20 on the New York State Registry of Inactive
Hazardous Waste Sites.  Fear regarding possible
contamination is attached to countless other properties
in the City.

OBJECTIVES

The Buffalo Brownfields Pilot is a cooperative effort
working to promote the safe, productive, and
appropriate reuse of the City's brownfields.  This
effort will contribute  to ensuring a safer, cleaner
environment, as well as creating and promoting new,
clean, high quality residential, commercial, and
industrial acreage. EPA funds will help to develop a
City-wide master list of potential brownfields sites,
create a database of  information,  and develop a
process for prioritizing sites for further assessment
and analysis.
PILOT SNAPSHOT
Contacts:

Jim Smith
Office for the
Environment
City of Buffalo
(716)851-5608
                   Date of Award:
                   September 1995

                   Amount: $200,000

                   Site Profile: The Pilot
                   targets public and private
                   properties that have near
                   term development
                   potential and are located
                   in areas needing
 Buffalo, New York     revitalization.
  Larry D'Andrea
  U.S. EPA-Region 2
  (212)637-4314
  dandrea.larry@
  epamail.epa.gov
      Visit the EPA Brownfields Website at:
      http://www.epa.gov/brownfields

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The Pilot is guided by the Buffalo Brownfields Task
Force, comprised of County and City Department
officials; regional State regulatory agency officials; a
member of  the  Interagency Working  Group  on
Environmental Justice; representatives from the City' s
official  Buffalo Environmental Management
Commission; members of the banking, legal, real
estate, business, and university communities; and the
general public.

ACCOMPLISHMENTS AND ACTIVITIES

The Pilot has:

• Initiated development of a geographic information
 system (GIS) database.  The  GIS  database will
 allow  for  input and manipulation of planning,
 environmental,  and economic site data, and will
 serve as a key information resource for  anyone
 interested in any property in Buffalo;

• Prepared a detailed inventory of 22 potential
 brownfields sites;

• Completed six environmental site assessments; and

• Prepared a Community Outreach Plan, which is
 expected to be released in mid-1997. The plan will
 serve as the mechanism for informing the public of
 the  City's  brownfields community participation
 process.

The Pilot is:

• Preparing a Brownfields Redevelopment Manual to
 be available to the City, business, and environmental
 communities  and serve  as  a tool for future
 development efforts;

• Coordinating a brownfields workshop/developer
 showcase to be  held in 1997;

• Improving the affected public's ability to understand,
 evaluate, and fully participate in the decision-making
 process;
• Finalizing a development strategy for roughly 1,000-
 1,500 former industrial acres in southern Buffalo.
 The Pilot will prioritize  sites for brownfields
 assessment.  In addition, based on the results of a
 Phase  I  environmental site assessment,  project
 developers  are beginning development  of a
 conceptual plan for a property in this area;  and

• Finalizing  a development strategy for  overall
 brownfields redevelopment projects based on com-
 munity vision, economic development possibilities,
 and health and environmental concerns.

LEVERAGING OTHER ACTIVITIES

Experience with the Buffalo Pilot has been a catalyst
for related activities including the following.

• Assistedthe assessment, cleanup, and redevelopment
 of  the LTV Republic Steel  Site.   A 25-acre
 hydroponic tomato greenhouse will now occupy the
 former industrial site on the banks of the Buffalo
 River.  Petroleum waste from the LTV Republic
 Steel site may be recycled to make asphalt and
 reduce runoff into the river.

• Assistedthe assessment, cleanup, and redevelopment
 of the Atlas Steel site. A 16-screen cinema with a
 total expected seat-capacity of 3,500, will join a
 restaurant, delicatessen, and discount department
 store as new occupants of the former steel plant site.
 Regional Brownfields Assessment Pilot
 May 1997
                               Buffalo, New York
                              EPA 500-F-97-046

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