Brownfields 2001 Job Training Pilot Fact Sheet
Troy Rehabilitation and Improvement Program, Inc., Troy, NY
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 has selected the Troy Rehabilitation and
Improvement Program, Inc. (TRIP) for a Brownfields
Job Training and Development Demonstration Pilot. The
City of Troy's Brownfields Assessment Pilot program
will partner with TRIP. The City of Troy (population
54,000) is located 10 miles north of Albany on the
Hudson River. Both the Brownfields Assessment Pilot
and the Brownfields Job Training Pilot address a
distressed working class neighborhood within the
underused industrial waterfront area, which has been
designated a federal Enterprise Community and a state
Empire Zone. Neighborhoods in this area suffer from
unemployment rates as high as 13% and poverty rates as
high as 30%. Troy's population is 17% minority.
Years of decline in traditional manufacturing industries
have left mills, warehouses, and heavy industrial
facilities abandoned and deteriorating. The City of Troy
is in the process of implementing the South Troy
Working Waterfront Revitalization Plan, a brownfields
redevelopment strategy that will add over 2,000 new
jobs, over one million square feet of new commercial
space, and over fifty acres of waterfront greenspace. The
U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development is
supporting brownfields redevelopment through $8
million in grant and loan funding. Demand for
Pilot Snapshot
Date of Announcement: 12/01/2000
Amount: $200,000
Profile: The Troy Brownfields Job Training Pilot
will train 50 participants as environmental
technicians. Students will be recruited from the City's
federal Enterprise Community, which contains many
brownfields created by past heavy industrial activities
along the City's waterfront.
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 2 Brownfields Team
(212)637-4309
EPA Region 2 Brownfields Web site
(http://www.epa.gov/region02/brownfields/)
Grant Recipient: City of Troy,NY
(518)272-8289
Objectives
TRIP plans to train 50 participants, achieve a 70%
placement rate, and support career placement of
graduates for one year after the training is completed.
Participants will be recruited from the distressed North
Central and South Troy neighborhoods, with a focus on
low-income residents, minority workers, recipients of
public assistance, and residents of subsidized housing.
The 230-hour Pilot training program includes the
Occupational Health and Safety Administration's
required training for hazardous waste workers, lead and
asbestos abatement, general construction and industrial
equipment operation, and brownfields assessment and
remediation, including training in the use of innovative
assessment and remediation technologies. Trainees will
learn cutting edge innovative technologies such as
bioventing, thermal desorption, phytoremediation, and
bioremediation.
United States
Environmental
Protection Agency
Washington, DC 20450
Solid Waste
and Emergency
Response (5105T)
EPA 500-F-01-00-272
Dec 00
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more of the planned redevelopment projects are
implemented.
TRIP's training efforts will be supported by
organizations such as the City of Troy, Hudson Valley
Community College County Workforce Development
Center, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, and local
groups such as the North Central Neighborhood
Association. Through the involvement of local
employers, the Troy Environmental Science Training
curriculum is being customized to produce technicians
capable of addressing regional hazardous waste issues.
Private sector supporters include River Street Planning
and Development, FASES Partners, Inc., Niagara
Mohawk Power Corporation, Weston, and Safety
Systems, Inc. An Advisory Board consisting of City
staff, Pilot partners, and additional neighborhood
residents will be established to oversee implementation
of the Brownfields Job Training Pilot.
Activities
Activities planned as part of this Pilot include:
• Conducting outreach to recruit residents from the
distressed North Central and South Troy
neighborhoods;
• Conducting environmental technician training,
including courses in the use of innovative
assessment and cleanup technologies; and
• Supporting career placement of students for one
year after the job training is completed.
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
Environmental
Protection Agency
Washington, DC 20450
Solid Waste
and Emergency
Response (5105T)
EPA 500-F-01-00-272
Dec 00
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