&EPA
The Brownfields Initiative:
Setting Change in Motion
Before and after photos of the ba.
Bridgeport, Connecticut.
Brownfields:
Abandoned, idled, or
under-used industrial and
commercial facilities where
expansion or redevelopment is
complicated by real or
perceived environmental
contamination.
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Groundbreaking ceremony at the Eco Industrial
Park in Cape Charles, Virginia.
What is the Brownfields Initiative?
Since its inception in 1995, EPA's Brownfields
Initiative has blossomed into a major national
program that has literally changed the way that
contaminated property is perceived, addressed,
and managed in the United States. The Initiative
reflects a new model of environmental protection
that creates economically viable, environmentally
sound, self-sustaining communities.
Prior to EPA's Brownfields Initiative, brownfields
typically remained undeveloped (and often
unapproached) because of two critical un-
knowns: 1) the level of existing contamination on
the site, if any; and 2) the often vague notions of
potential responsibility for that contamination,
should ties to the site be established. Fears of
mandatory cleanup under the Agency's Resource
Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA), and
awareness of a site's listing among the tens of
thousands of other brownfields within EPA's Com-
prehensive Environmental Response, Compensa-
tion, and Liability Information System (CERCLIS),
served as barriers to private sector involvement in
brownfields restoration, even considering many of
these sites' prime locations.
The Brownfields Initiative has helped to remove
these barriers and leverage billions of dollars
toward brownfields restoration from the private
and public sectors. The Initiative proved that the
old "command and control" way of managing
contaminated properties was not a feasible
approach for managing less polluted sites, and
that common sense approaches were needed to
help American cities handle their own economic
destinies. EPA also learned that neither problems
nor solutions are created in a vacuum, and that to
be effective, cooperation and collaboration were
needed among the entire federal family to
address these lesser contaminated sites. The
Brownfields National Partnership, now 22 agencies
strong, has since become a model for not only
increasing efficiency, but for leveraging significant
funds to benefit local community efforts.
Brownfields Pilots—Paving the Way
The goal of the Brownfields Initiative is to enable
states and communities to work together to assess,
safely clean up, and sustainably reuse brownfields.
One of the primary ways the Initiative does this is
by providing small amounts of seed money to
local governments, which then create two-year
Brownfields "Pilot" programs that build capacity
and partnerships at the local level, while develop-
ing innovative approaches to brownfields issues.
Brownfields Pilot programs provide cities, states,
tribes, municipalities, and communities with useful
information and strategies for brownfields restora-
tion. Pilot programs not only provide initial funding,
but offer continued general and technical assis-
tance to help meet cleanup goals. Designed with
replicability in mind, Brownfields Pilots encourage
information-sharing to ensure that future Pilots will
learn from the shortcomings and successes of
Pilots that preceded them.
Brownfields Pilots fall under several categories:
• Brownfields Assessment Pilots provide funding
for environmental assessments and community
outreach.
• Brownfields Cleanup Revolving Loan Fund
(BCRLF) Pilots provide funding to capitalize
loans that are used to clean up brownfields.
• Brownfields Job Training and Development
Demonstration Pilots provide environmental
training for residents of brownfields communi-
ties.
• Resource Conservation and Recovery Act
(RCRA)/Brownfields Prevention Pilots utilize the
inherent flexibility in RCRA regulations to
prevent brownfields from forming on RCRA
properties.
• Clean Air/Brownfields Partnership Pilots help
determine the potential air quality and other
environmental and economic benefits of
redeveloping urban brownfields.
New housing development located in Fort Wayne, Indiana.
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"We have seen a significant transformation in the way
we view our air, water, and land. Today, there is
universal agreement that our natural resources are
valuable, not just for the economic prosperity they help
create, but for what they add to our quality of life."
—United States Environmental Protection Agency,
Christine Todd Whitman, Administrator
Senate Hearing, 1/17/01
Revitalized South End District in Charlotte, North Carolina.
• Brownfields Showcase Communities serve as
national models for successful brownflelds
assessment cleanup, and redevelopmenf.
• Targeted Brownfields Assessments (TBAs)
provide funding and/or technical assistance
for environmental assessments at selected
brownflelds sites not targeted by EPA Assess-
ment Pilots.
Pilot and Initiative Accomplishments
• Brownflelds Job Training Pilots have produced
hundreds of graduates, the majority of whom
quickly found careers within the environmental
field.
• Cleanup and redevelopment of brownflelds
enabled through the Initiative have created
thousands of jobs, particularly for residents of
disadvantaged communities.
• Of the thousands of properties assessed
through Brownflelds Pilots, several hundred
required no cleanup, instantly returning them
to circulation—in many cases, after years of
perceived worthlessness.
• The Initiative's Assessment Pilot grants have
leveraged billions of dollars in cleanup and
redevelopment funding from the private and
public sectors.
• For every brownfleld acre redeveloped
into residential and commercial uses,
21.4 acres of greenspace are pro-
tected.
An Impressive Past and a Promising Future
The momentum generated by Brownfields Pilot
projects is outliving the duration of the Pilots them-
selves—leveraging state, local, and private invest-
ment long after federal funds are expended.
Across the country, communities once impacted by
brownflelds now benefit through local workforce
development and job training programs. Environ-
mental assessments conducted through the Initiative
have removed contamination and liability uncer-
tainties from thousands of sites across the country,
resulting in billions of dollars in cleanup and redevel-
opment funding leveraged from the private and
public sectors. Pilot by Pilot and site by site, the
Brownfields Initiative is replacing hopelessness with
community empowerment and economic revitaliza-
tion, enabling disadvantaged neighborhoods to
succeed through the opportunities provided through
brownfields restoration.
Building State and Local
Capacity for Continued Success
EPA's Brownfields Initiative builds state and local capacity
through both funding and technical assistance by:
• Providing financial support to the more than 40 states that
3ve developed voluntary cleanup programs to establish clear
anup goals and provide liability relief.
• Partnering with states to reduce liability concerns at brownfields
sites by entering into Superfund Memoranda of Agreement (MOA)
with state environmental agencies, to define each agency's roles
and responsibilities at a particular site. MOAs are beneficial to states
in marketing their voluntary cleanup and brownfields programs to
potential developers and investors because they provide a level of
comfort with the potential liability risks under the federal Superfund
program.
• Forming effective partnerships with state and local governments to
bolster efforts to clean up brownfields sites, remove obstacles to
redevelopment, and involve affected communities.
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United States
Environmental Protection
Agency
Solid Waste
and Emergency
Response (5105)
EPA500-F-01-342
September 2001
www.epa.gov/brownfields/
United States Environmental Protection Agency,
Christine Todd Whitman, Administrator
For more infor
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