u
o
Brownfields
Supplemental Assistance
Bucks County, PA
BACKGROUND
EPA awarded Bucks County supplemental assistance for
its Brownfields Assessment Demonstration Pilot. Since
the mid-twentieth century, the economic vitality of Bucks
County has centered around a manufacturing industrial
base located along the Delaware River. The county has
been the site for much industry, mainly because of its
major transportation routes, which include the Delaware
River, Delaware Canal, Neshaminy Creek, Interstate-95,
Route 202, and Route 611. Despite accessibility to an
established transportation network and a large, high-
quality workforce, businesses tend to avoid brownfields
and their suspected contamination and, instead, elect to
locate in undeveloped parts of the county, which has
exacerbated urban decay and suburban sprawl.
Furthermore, as a result of the economic downturn in 2001
and the additional slowdown resulting from the September
11th tragedy, numerous businesses in Bucks County have
closed, leaving hundreds of acres of industrial land idle and
resulting in the loss of nearly 1,000 jobs.
The original Assessment Pilot grant focused on three
municipalities and later expanded to cover all six
municipalities comprising the Enterprise Zone (EZ) located
in the lower portion of the county. Supplemental assistance
allowed the Redevelopment Authority to expand their
inventory to include all brownfields in the county and to
conduct environmental assessments at targeted sites.
Additional supplemental funds will allow Bucks County to
expand their brownfields inventory to include additional
abandoned or underused sites.
OBJECTIVES AND PLANNED ACTIVITIES
With this supplemental assistance, the county's
Redevelopment Authority intends to update and consolidate
the brownfields inventories that were previously completed
using the original funding under the Assessment Pilot. The
authority will subsequently assess, acquire, and ultimately
clean up those brownfields that the community and the
PILOT SNAPSHOT
Bucks County,
Pennsylvania
Date of Announcement:
May 2002
Amount: $150,000
Profile: The Pilot will identify
and rank new and existing
brownfields sites in Bucks
County and target priority
brownfields sites for acquisition,
assessment, cleanup, and/or
redevelopment.
Contacts:
Redevelopment Authority
of the County of Bucks
(215)781-8711
Regional Brownfields Team
U.S. EPA Region 3
(215)814-3246
Visit the E PA Region 3 Brownfields web site at:
http://www.epa.gov/reg3hwmd/bfs/index.htm
Forfurther information, including specific Pilot contacts,
additional Pilot information, brownfields news and events, and
publications and links, visit the EPA Brownfields web site at:
www.epa.gov/brownfields
county have identified as being most important to the
revitalization of the area. Bucks County plans to establish
a system whereby the authority, as the county-designated
brownfields coordinator, would be advised of any potential
brownfields as soon as they become a brownfield by
definition.
-------
Activities planned as part of this Pilot include:
• Establishing aprocessthroughwhichmunicipalities will
notify the Redevelopment Authority of potential
brownfields soon afterthey become vacantorunderused;
• Conducting record searches on recently identified
brownfields;
• Conducting field inspections to determine the eligibility
of identified sitesforinclusionin the brownfields program;
• Presenting the target sites to a panel for review and
rating based on established criteria;
• Contacting the property owners and municipalities about
proceeding with the acquisition, assessment, and cleanup
of the sites; and
• Asse ssing high priority site s.
Thecooperativeagreementforthis Pilot hasnotyetbeen negotiated; therefore,
activities described in this fact sheet are subject to change.
Solid Waste EPA 500-F-02-116
and Emergency May 2002
Response (5105) www.epa.gov/brownfields/
------- |