Brownfields 1997 Assessment Pilot Fact Sheet St. Louis County, MO EPA Brownfields Initiative EPA's Brownfields Program empowers states. communities, and other stakeholders to work together to prevent, assess, safely clean up, and sustainably reuse brownfields. A brownfield site is real property, the expansion, redevelopment, or reuse of which may be complicated by the presence or potential presence of a hazardous substance, pollutant, or contaminant. On January 11, 2002, President George W. Bush signed into law the Small Business Liability Relief and Brownfields Revitalization Act. Under the Brownfields Law, EPA provides financial assistance to eligible applicants through four competitive grant programs: assessment grants, revolving loan fund grants, cleanup grants, and job training grants. Additionally, funding support is provided to state and tribal response programs through a separate mechanism. Background EPA selected St. Louis County for a Brownfields Pilot. The Pilot is focusing its activities on Wellston, which is part of a federally designated Enterprise Community, a state-designated Enterprise Zone, and part of the St. Louis Regional Empowerment Zone. Wellston's population has declined by 60 percent over the past 50 years, 46 percent of the current residents live below the poverty level, and the city has a 22 percent unemployment rate. Most industries have moved to the outer suburbs, and a once-vibrant retail district has disappeared from the city. The St. Louis County Pilot is focusing on a 100-acre area near the Wellston Metro Link Station. A previous user of a portion of that area was the Wagner Electric Company. It manufactured electrical transformers, electric motors, brake linings, and other components. A portion of the Wagner site was cleaned up under Superfund authority; however, the city believes that other areas adjacent to the site may be contaminated due to activities that took place at the Wagner property. The main focus of the Land Clearance for Redevelopment Authority of St. Louis County and the City of Wellston is to redevelop some of their brownfields areas (including portions of the Wagner site) as the Wellston Technology Park (WTP). The WTP Pilot Snapshot Date of Announcement: 05/13/1997 Amount: $200,000 Profile: The Pilot targets a 100-acre area near the Wellston Metro Link Station. Contacts For further information, including specific grant contacts, additional grant information, brownfields news and events, and publications and links, visit the EPA Brownfields Web site (http ://www .epa.gov/brownfields). EPA Region 7 Brownfields Team (800)223-0425 EPA Region 7 Brownfields Web site (http://www.epa.gov/region7/cleanup/brown fields) Grant Recipient: St. Louis County, MO (314)889-7663 Objectives The Pilot's goal is to create employment and reinvestment opportunities by redeveloping a 100-acre abandoned industrial area into a light industrial technology park, complimented by residential and commercial redevelopment. Objectives of the Pilot are to conduct environmental assessments of properties in the target area, prepare cleanup and redevelopment plans, and develop a community outreach program. Activities The Pilot has: • Identified 350 brownfields in the project area through its geographic information system (GIS) efforts; and • Completed Phase I assessments at 135 sites throughout the target area and determined that 129 sites do not require cleanup. The Pilot is: United States Environmental Protection Agency Washington, DC 20450 Solid Waste and Emergency Response (5105T) EPA 500-F-00-069 Dec 00 ------- mipiuvcmciiis 10 iiiuasuucuuc 10 immune . Continuing assessments on additional targeted residential and commercial development. In addition, •. numerous properties surrounding the WTP are to be . Preparing a comprehensive redevelopment plan, assessed and redeveloped according to the adopted including land-use strategies; and redevelopment plan for the City of Wellston. The Pilot is . Developing a community outreach program to seen as an opportunity to recapture a long-lost regional mvolv£ regldents m ^ Pllot ar£a m ^ asset and to create a stronger tax base for the city. redevelopment efforts. Experience with the Wellston Pilot has been a catalyst for related activities, including the following: • The Pilot is leveraging $1,075,000 for the development of a nonprofit day care center proposed for one of the Pilot-assessed sites through partnerships with the Federal Transit Authority's Livable Communities Initiative ($325,000), the Department of Human Services' Community Development Block Grants ($500,000), and the Department of Housing and Urban Development's Economic Development Initiative ($250,000). • EPA awarded St. Louis County a $100,000 supplemental assistance grant to target four brownfields in Wellston and Lamay. The information presented in this fact sheet comes from the grant proposal; EPA cannot attest to the accuracy of this information. The cooperative agreement for the grant has not yet been negotiated. Therefore, activities described in this fact sheet are subject to change. United States _ ., . w__tp Environmental and Emergency EPA 500-F-00-069 Protection Agency ResDonse(51oVn Dec 00 Washington, DC 20450 Kesponse (bl Ob I) ------- Brownfields 1997 Supplemental Assessment Pilot Fact Sheet St. Louis County, MO EPA Brownfields Initiative EPA's Brownfields Program empowers states. communities, and other stakeholders to work together to prevent, assess, safely clean up, and sustainably reuse brownfields. A brownfield site is real property, the expansion, redevelopment, or reuse of which may be complicated by the presence or potential presence of a hazardous substance, pollutant, or contaminant. On January 11, 2002, President George W. Bush signed into law the Small Business Liability Relief and Brownfields Revitalization Act. Under the Brownfields Law, EPA provides financial assistance to eligible applicants through four competitive grant programs: assessment grants, revolving loan fund grants, cleanup grants, and job training grants. Additionally, funding support is provided to state and tribal response programs through a separate mechanism. Background EPA awarded St. Louis County, Missouri, supplemental assistance for its Brownfields Assessment Demonstration Pilot. Inner suburbs and municipalities in St. Louis County have experienced an economic decline as both residents and businesses have moved to outlying suburbs. For example, 50 years ago, Wellston, a St. Louis County municipality, counted 40,000 residents and its industry supported 10,000 jobs. Today, Wellston's industry is struggling and its population has declined more than 60 percent. Half of the residents live below the poverty line, and 93 percent are minorities. To help revitalize aging "inner ring" suburbs such as Wellston, St. Louis County launched a brownfields initiative in 1997, partially funded through the initial EPA Pilot. The St. Louis County brownfields initiative has worked to spur cleanup and redevelopment at several abandoned and/or contaminated sites in Wellston and other inner ring communities. The Pilot will use the supplemental assistance to expand beyond the initial targeted project-the Wellston Technology Park (WTP)-to two other Wellston brownfields and two potential greenspace projects in the Lemay area of St. Louis County. Pilot Snapshot Date of Announcement: 03/01/2000 Amount: $100,000 Profile: The Pilot will target four brownfields in the towns of Wellston and Lemay for residential, commercial, and recreational reuse. Contacts For further information, including specific grant contacts, additional grant information, brownfields news and events, and publications and links, visit the EPA Brownfields Web site (http ://www .epa.gov/brownfields). EPA Region 7 Brownfields Team (800)223-0425 EPA Region 7 Brownfields Web site (http://www.epa.gov/region7/cleanup/brown fields) Grant Recipient: St. Louis County, MO (314)615-7663 Objectives St. Louis County, in conjunction with the St. Louis Brownfields Initiative, seeks to ensure that the entire community benefits from brownfields revitalization. In Wellston, the Pilot will support these efforts at a project adjacent to the WTP that will be redeveloped into a 300-unit residential area and another brownfield that will become a light industrial park. In Lemay, the supplemental assistance will facilitate greenspace creation as part of the Rivers South Restoration project, located within the federally designated Empowerment Zone. Revitalization of brownfields within these communities hopefully will demonstrate the feasibility and potential for business expansion in older St. Louis County communities. To accomplish these objectives, the Pilot plans to: • Conduct environmental assessments at four targeted brownfields in the towns of Wellston and Lemay; • Prepare preliminary cleanup plans for the United States Environmental Protection Agency Washington, DC 20450 Solid Waste and Emergency Response (5105T) EPA 500-F-00-051 Apr 00 ------- targeted brownfields; and • Develop a community outreach program to ensure residents understand the potential risks and benefits of brownfields reuse. The cooperative agreement for this Pilot has not yet been negotiated; therefore, activities described in this fact sheet are subject to change. The information presented in this fact sheet comes from the grant proposal; EPA cannot attest to the accuracy of this information. The cooperative agreement for the grant has not yet been negotiated. Therefore, activities described in this fact sheet are subject to change. United States _ ., . w__tp Environmental and Emergency EPA ^- Protection Agency ResDonse(51oVn Apr°° Washington, DC 20450 Kesponse (bl Ob I) ------- |