United States
                       Environmental
                       Protection Agency
                       Washington, D.C. 20460
  Solid Waste
  and Emergency
  Response (5101)
EPA 500-F-97-004
May 1997
                       National  Brownfields
                       Assessment  Pilot
                                                     Birmingham,  AL
  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 selected the  City of Birmingham  for a
  Brownfields Pilot. The City has also been selected
  as a pilot for EPA's Common Sense Initiative to
  review regulatory impacts on the iron and steel
  industry. TheCity'sNorthBirminghamIndustrial
  Redevelopment Project is a 900-acre planning
  area approximately one mile north of Birmingham,
  Alabama's City Center. Forty percent of the area
  property is vacant, in many cases due to
  contamination from old iron foundries and blast
  furnaces. The industrial area is surrounded by low
  income,  predominately African-American
  neighborhoods. The project's efforts include: l)a
  land use plan for the redevelopment of over 150
  acres of vacant industrial land and dilapidated
  housing; 2) an improvement plan for Village Creek;
  3) the  extension of Finley Avenue, a critical
  industrial and neighborhood transportation link;
  and  4) the creation of the  Birmingham
  Environmental  Clearinghouse to carry out the
  Pilot's investigation  and education activities.  Other
  community-based projects, such as a revitalized
  merchant association have been initiated in
  response to the bottom-up planning process which
  has involved many local businesses as well as
  neighborhood residents.
  PILOT SNAPSHOT
  Birmingham, Alabama
                     Date of Award:
                     September 1995

                     Amount: $200,000

                     Site Profile: The Pilot
                     targets the North
                     Birmingham Industrial
                     Redevelopment Project
                     area, which is a 900-acre
                     planning zone one mile
                     north of the City Center.
Contacts:

John Gemmill
City of Birmingham
(205) 254-2872
jhgemmi@ci.
birmingham.al.us
Keith Strother
Birmingham Environmental
Clearinghouse
(205) 324-7483
brownfield@worldnet.att.net
Barbara Caprita
U.S. EPA-Region 4
(404) 562-9969
caprita.barbara@epamail.epa.gov

        Visit the EPA Brownfields Website at:
        http://www.epa.gov/brownfields

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OBJECTIVES
LEVERAGING OTHER ACTIVITIES
The  Birmingham  Pilot  is working to remove
environmental obstacles to the redevelopment of
industrial lands in North  Birmingham in order to
create space for 2,000,000 square feet of commercial
and light industrial buildings employing over 2,000
workers. In the course of environmental investigation
and redevelopment planning, the community of
approximately 10,000 has been kept informed of the
many environmental and development issues.

ACCOMPLISHMENTS AND ACTIVITIES

The Pilot has:

• Created the Birmingham Environmental Clearing-
 house, a repository for the redevelopment area's
 brownfields environmental data;

• Recreateda"RedevelopmentAuthority." The design
 of this authority is based on products developed in
 a cooperative effort with the Northwest Indiana
 Brownfields Pilots and EPA's  Common Sense
 Initiative; and

• Created a technical assistance team to analyze
 environmental issues, develop remediation plans,
 and provide financial resources to small businesses
 and  community organizations unable to sustain
 environmental compliance efforts or undertake large
 scale remediation programs.

The Pilot is:

• Creating a technical and educational consortium to
 target environmental planning, research, educational,
 and technical resources on assessment and cleanup
 of brownfields  in the  North  Birmingham
 redevelopment area; and

• Developing  a comprehensive environmental plan
 that will link approaches to programs such as flood
 control  and  storm water and  groundwater
 contamination reduction with remediation of soil
 and site-specific contamination.
Experience with the Birmingham Pilot has been a
catalyst for related activities including the following.

• Developing apartnership of environmental activists;
 technical experts; City, State, and Federal officials;
 and members of the business community that will
 support the Pilot program with staff and materials.

• Four new companies have located in the project area
 as of April 1997.

• The redevelopment team is facilitating the purchase
 of35 acresforthefirstphaseofa 150-acre industrial
 park.

• EPA Region 4 assisted the project by  intervening
 with Alabama's Highway Departmentto encourage
 the continuation of engineering work on the Finely
 Avenue extension.

• The brownfields team is working to raise funds to
 clean up a 40-acre site for housing, recreation, and
 light industry. The area is being designated as an
 urban renewal district to allow the use of public
 funds in it. The brownfields approach is to allow
 Finely Avenue Extension right-of-way purchase.
 National Brownfields Assessment Pilot
 May 1997
                            Birmingham, Alabama
                              EPA 500-F-97-004

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