United States
Environmental
Protection Agency
Washington, D.C. 20460
Solid Waste
and Emergency
Response (5101)
EPA500-F-97-051
May 1997
Regional Brownfields
Assessment Pilot
Dallas,TX
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 6 selected the City of Dallas for a
Regional Brownfields Pilot. The Dallas Pilot seeks
the involvement of business groups and community
organizations to identify brownfields, prioritize site
evaluations, determine the extent of environmental
contamination, and develop public/private partner-
ships for site cleanup and financing. Because some
neighborhoods within the City have a reputation for
being heavily contaminated, realtors and businesses
often disregarded sites in these areas for redevelop-
ment or investment. By identifying and developing
an inventory of sites which have redevelopment
potential, and working with those who can help
realize this potential, the City hopes to increase
economic development and create new jobs while
cleaning up environmental contamination.
OBJECTIVES
The Dallas Brownfields Pilot has concentrated its
efforts in several areas. First, working with business
and community groups, the City is developing a
Brownfields inventory. The City is also working
with EPA and the Texas Natural Resource Conserva-
tion Commission (TNRCC) Voluntary Cleanup Pro-
gram (VCP) to reach consensus on the environmental
guidelines and standards to be applied to brownfields.
PILOT SNAPSHOT
Dallas, Texas
Contacts:
Beverly Negri
U.S. EPA Brownfields
Liaison
City of Dallas
(214)670-1690
Date of Award:
August 1995
Amount: $200,000
Site Profile: The Pilot
targets the remediation of
idled, under-used and
abandoned environmen-
tally contaminated sites
while ensuring community
participation. Coordina-
tion with public-private
partners has resulted in
ten brownfields suc-
cesses.
Stan Hitt
U.S. EPA-Region 6
(214)665-6735
hitt.stan@epamail.epa.gov
Visit the EPA Brownfields Website at:
http://www.epa.gov/brownfields
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The guidelines will be based, in part, on the environ-
mental condition of the property and reasonably
anticipated future uses.
Another focus of the Pilot is the performance of site
evaluations. When evaluations are complete, prop-
erty owners and/or developers may receive a
certificate(s) issued by TNRCC VCP that authorizes
specific types of development and contains assur-
ances that the property will be remediated appropri-
ately forthe anticipated future use. These assurances
may also serve as covenants not to sue. The Pilot has
extended its original objectives to include a focus on
developing community partnerships and increasing
stakeholder participation in the Dallas Brownfields
Program.
ACCOMPLISHMENTS AND ACTIVITIES
The Pilot has:
• Developed a methodology for identifying
brownfields sites that have redevelopment poten-
tial;
• Identified and inventoried more than 200 potential
brownfields sites. The City will continue to identify
and catalog additional brownfields;
• Developed a multi-level outreach and communica-
tions strategy that ensures the involvement and
input of business/industry, Federal, State, and local
governments, communities, regulators, developers,
and financial institutions;
• Completed a Phase I and II environmental assess-
ment and remediation on a 2.64 City-owned vacant
property. Identified parcel as the prospective site of
a new City recreation center; and
• Reviewed and approved the TNRCC' s risk reduction
rules as the cleanup standards to be used for
brownfields cleanup. Developed amatrixthat cross
references TNRCC rules and Dallas zoning codes to
determine acceptable land uses and or restrictions
for varying levels and types of contamination.
The Pilot is:
• Conducting a Brownfields Site Assessmentata .86-
acre site. Once all sampling is complete, the
developer plans to build several low-income single-
family housing units on the site;
• Utilizing a Site Characterization Prioritization
Process that is based on short-term economic
redevelopment potential, input from the community,
and environmental justice concerns to determine
qualified brownfields program participants; and
• Creating a "one-stop shop" for property owners,
lenders, developers, and others interested in the
TNRCC VCP and the Brownfields program.
LEVERAGING OTHER ACTIVITIES
Experience with the Dallas Pilot has been a catalyst
for related activities including the following.
• The TNRCC competed a site assessment on a 3.5-
acre site that had been vacant for more than 3 0 years.
The site, a former illegal dump, will be the new
home of ametal finishing business that will provide
up to 12 new jobs.
• Construction of a new City recreation center on 2.64
acres of City-owned land was initiated after the
property was assessed in conjunction with the Pilot.
The recreation center will be built using a $ 1 million
donation from professional basketball player and
Dallas native Larry Johnson.
• The 1-acre Consolidated Casting site was remediated
and redeveloped. The site was designated by EPA
as being a No Further Remedial Action Planned
(NFRAP) site. The owner cleaned up the existing
lead contamination and it was sold to a developer in
November 1996. The new site owner plans to
redevelop the site into multi-family housing.
• A 169-acre contaminated site that had been used an
illegal dump has undergone aPhase I site assessment,
and the prospective purchaser expects to submit a
Texas VCP application in the summer of 1997.
Planned redevelopment activities include the
construction of single family, senior and cluster
housing for several hundred families. Site owner
plans to sell part of the site to the Dallas Independent
School District for a new school building.
Regional Brownfields Assessment Pilot
May 1997
Dallas, Texas
EPA 500-F-97-051
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