State and Tribal Response
Program Highlights
IRA Funding Provided to States and Tribes to Address Contaminated Land in their Communities
REGION I
VERMONT - Surrounded by natural beauty, the former Vermont
Tissue South property is located in the rural town of Bennington.
Just three miles from the downtown and adjacent to Bennington
College, this former mill sits on the north bank of the Walloomsac
River. Its location was ideal for bringing a greater amount of cheaper
renewable energy to the area while also cleaning up contaminated
land. Since 1877, the Vermont Tissue Paper Corporation operated a
paper manufacturing and processing facility until it was abandoned
in 1986. Over the years, there was unauthorized dumping on the
site. The Vermont Department of Environmental Conservation
(DEC) used Section 128(a) Response Program funding to oversee
assessment activities that revealed polychlorinated biphenyls
(PCBs), dioxins, furans, and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons
(PAHs) in soil, concrete, and plumbing. After the property was
cleaned up, the historic mill building was repurposed into residential
units and a hydroelectric facility was developed on the property. A
man-made concrete dam houses two energy-generating turbines
and a secondary bedrock dam addresses environmental concerns
related to fish migration pathways, water oxygenation, and water
temperature. In addition, part of the property was transformed it into
a public open space. Other benefits include the preservation of a
historic building and ecological improvements that have enhanced
habitat functioning of the Walloomsac River.
REGION 2
NEW YORK - In the Village of Adams, an abandoned property that
was formerly occupied by a car dealership and several small gas
stations was remediated under the oversight of the New York State
Department of Environmental Protection (NYSDEC). Environmental
assessment activities revealed that the property was contaminated
with petroleum related to leaking underground storage tanks.
NYSDEC used Section 128(a) Response Program funding to
conduct a cleanup that included the removal of asbestos, building
demolition, and the removal of 13 underground storage tanks, 3,495
tons of petroleum contaminated soil, and 27,311 gallons of petroleum
contaminated water. Institutional controls are in place to prevent the
reuse of groundwater for drinking water and to provide for the use
of vapor barriers. After cleanup, the Village of Adams constructed a
jointly owned municipal building for government offices and the South
Jefferson Rescue Squad, a volunteer ambulance corps providing
ambulance transportation service to the residents of southern
Jefferson County.
The Village of Adams municipal building.
REGION 3
MARYLAND - The Maryland Department of the Environment's
(MDE) Land Restoration Program (LRP) has completed development
of its LRP Information Management System (IMS) database.
Financed partially through Section 128(a) Response Program
funding, LRP has developed a structured query language (SQL)-
based desktop application to track active and closed sites throughout
the State of Maryland. Collectively, these sites comprise Maryland's
Brownfield Master Inventory. The desktop application and the
SQL backend provide LRP with the ability to update site-specific
information presented to the public through its web-based LRP
geographic information system (GIS). When MDE's Office of
Information Management Technology (OIMT) upgrades to ArcGIS
10.2, the GIS data from the SQL database will be available to both
the desktop application and the GIS website on a real-time basis. In
addition to the pre-prepared (or canned) reports available from the
desktop application, LRP personnel can use Microsoft Access to
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generate customized queries of the data and prepare reports. The
development of the database has increased the efficiency for MDE
staff to access historic site information, and has improved public
access and information flow.
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REGION 4
MISSISSIPPI - On May 28, 2014, the U.S. Environmental Protection
Agency (EPA) announced that it plans to award five communities
in Mississippi with brownfield grants. The Mississippi brownfield
grant recipients are: City of Biloxi ($400,000), City of Corinth
($400,000), City of Gautier ($400,000), City of Laurel ($400,000),
and Monroe County ($350,000). Recognizing the competitive nature
of the national grant writing field, the Mississippi Department of
Environmental (MDEQ) used Section 128(a) Response Program
funding to increase outreach efforts to help communities write
better grant proposals. In cooperation with the Mississippi
Municipal League (MML) and EPA Region 4, MDEQ has held an
"Advanced Brownfield Grant Writing Workshop" at the Mississippi
Coast Coliseum and Convention Center during the annual MML
Conference in Biloxi for the last three years. The purpose of the
Advanced Workshop is to provide the year's unsuccessful Mississippi
communities an opportunity to receive feedback on their grant
proposals from technical experts who have been successful in
securing Brownfield Grants. One goal of the advanced workshop is
to identify strengths and weaknesses in the unsuccessful proposals.
Another goal is to provide a forum for community leaders to meet
face-to-face with successful Brownfield grant writers. Since
launching this outreach effort, grant awards have gone up and
the enhanced outreach efforts have shown positive results with
Mississippi doing better than the national and regional averages as
measured by Brownfield Grant Success Rate.
REGION 5
WISCONSIN - The 4.25-acre North 800 Block of East Washington
Avenue, in the shadow of Wisconsin's capital building, was in
industrial and commercial use since the early 1900s. The property
was historically used for manufacturing leather products before
transitioning in the middle of the century to auto sales and service,
auto wrecking with junk areas, used auto parts, a motor freight
station, a machine shop and a gasoline station. The City of Madison
purchased the site in 2011 with the intent to remediate and ready this
highly visible property for redevelopment. Following acquisition by
the city, a block-wide Phase II environmental site assessment (ESA)
was completed. Soil tests showed that the entire block consisted of
soil and fill materials containing widespread petroleum and metal
contamination associated with industrial use and underground tanks.
The cleanup was supported by a $400,000 hazardous substance
grant from the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources'
(DNR) Ready for Reuse program. DNR experts used Section
128(a) Response Program funding to provide technical assistance
throughout the entire process, including project management,
creating a scope of work and reviewing documents for closure.
In June 2013, the city reached a deal on the sale of the site to a
developer for a $65 million, 10-story mixed-use project anchored
by a 50,000 square-foot grocery store with a rooftop garden.
Groundbreaking on the development, The Galaxie, occurred in
September 2014. The tower portion of the project will include up to
240 residential units, including nearly 50 for lower-income residents.
A second phase of the project could provide nearly two dozen owner-
occupied homes and an additional 65,000 square-feet of retail/
commercial/office space.
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REGION 6
TEXAS - In Austin, the Guadalupe-Saldana Net Zero Subdivision
redeveloped 11 acres of vacant land where historical dumping
had occurred. The Texas Commission of Environmental Quality
(TCEQ) used Section 128(a) Response Program funding to provide
oversight on the project. After a thorough investigation, the only area
of concern was lead-impacted soil associated with the dumping of
numerous battery casings. The impacted soil was excavated and
disposed of at an approved landfill. As a result, a No Further Action
letter was issued on November 19, 2012 stating the property was
suitable for residential land use.
The property was redeveloped into a 130-unit subdivision that
transformed an existing brownfield into a mix of single-family and
townhouse units with both rental and ownership opportunities for
households with low-income. The Guadalupe-Saldana Net Zero
Subdivision has a "net zero" designation in which 60 units will
produce as much energy as they consume over the year resulting
in a "net-zero" energy bill. A portion of the property will be open
space, a bio-filtration pond, and walking trails. These housing
opportunities are in collaboration with a non-profit corporation
that assists single parents and their children to break the cycle of
poverty by providing a supportive community of affordable housing,
developmental childcare, life skills programming, individual coaching
and empowerment training.
REGION 7
MISSOURI -The Lewis County Industrial Development Authority
(IDA) applied for and received a Community Development Block
Grant (CDBG) of almost $2 million to purchase, remediate and/
or demolish 10 blighted properties and buildings considered health
hazards, making room for community development opportunities
including the new Ursa Farmer's Coop grain elevator and barge
loading facility on the Mississippi River in the town of Canton. Ten
different properties were assessed and then enrolled in the Section
128(a) Response Program funded Missouri voluntary cleanup
program (VCP) for cleanup oversight. Contaminants included lead-
based paint, asbestos-containing materials, and other contaminants
including barrels of unknown substances. The VCP issued a
certification of completion letter in February 2014. In addition to the
new Ursa Farmer Coop facility, the Canton Tourism Commission
built a wetland educational walking trail, a levy promenade, and an
observation deck overlooking the river.
REGION 8
UTAH - Utah's Division of Environmental Response and Remediation
(DERR) has revisited four of the properties that were recipients of the
Brownfields Showcase Communities and Assessment Demonstration
Pilots from the late 1990s in order to update the associated
accomplishments in the Assessment, Cleanup and Redevelopment
Exchange System (ACRES) database. This follow-up has resulted
in the reporting of large amounts of leveraged redevelopment dollars
and jobs created from some of the earliest brownfields properties.
For example, following a 1997 pilot assessment grant, Ogden City
entered the Ogden Block 37A property into the Utah voluntary
cleanup program (VCP). Once the cleanup was completed in
2005, an office building complex was constructed that resulted in
approximately 900 new jobs and over $21M in private redevelopment
dollars. In another instance, the Salt Lake City Redevelopment
Agency was awarded pilot grant funds, a supplemental assistance
grant, and was designated as an EPA Brownfields Showcase
Community for the assessment and eventual redevelopment of the
Gateway District/ 500 West Park Blocks properties. This initial seed
The Guadalupe-Saldana Net Zero Subdivision.
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money from EPA for assessment led to over $18M in leveraged
redevelopment funds and thousands of new jobs created. These
accomplishments, that occurred after the grants were closed out,
were able to be captured in ACRES because DERR committed to
researching the outcomes of these early assessment projects. The
research performed by DERR to update these properties in ACRES
has led to capturing millions of redevelopment dollars and thousands
of jobs created that have resulted from brownfield assessments.
Office Complex in Ogden City, Utah.
REGION 9
GILA RIVER INDIAN COMMUNITY- Earlier this year, the Gila River
Indian Community (GRIC) adopted a new solid waste ordinance for
their 584 square mile community, which lies just south of Phoenix,
Arizona. The development of this ordinance was funded by its
Section 128(a) Response Program grant. The ordinance helps
protect the community by creating enforceable environmental
standards for the storage, collection, transportation and disposal
of all solid waste including hazardous waste. The ordinance
addresses multiple activities including the management of solid and
hazardous waste. Important to these efforts are the establishment
of enforcement mechanisms to ensure the fair implementation of
this ordinance, as well as administrative appeal processes.
The Community has also been working with the Institute for Tribal
Environmental Professionals (ITEP) to make the new ordinance
available to other tribes via ITEP's library of solid waste laws. This
ensures that the ordinance will help to protect GRIC's environment
and form the foundation for those tribes that are looking to establish
similar ordinances for their communities.
REGION 10
ORGANIZED VILLAGE OF KASAAN - The Organized Village of
Kasaan (OVK) used Section 128(a) Response Program funding to
plan and host the fourth annual Prince of Wales Island-Wide Mining
Symposium on April 24th and 25th, 2014 in Craig, Alaska. With
more than 100 people in attendance, the symposium provided a
unique forum for information exchange and issue discussion among
stakeholders, landowners, and the indigenous people of Southeast
Alaska. Participants included tribes, Alaska Mining Association,
mining companies, power entities, regulatory entities, University of
Alaska Southeast, and many other concerned community members.
Technical presentations included Mineral Resources of Prince of
Wales Island and Water Quality and Water Management. Regulatory
presentations included the Alaska Department of Natural Resources
Coordinated Permitting Involvement in Canadian Mine Reviews,
Mining Reclamation, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture
(USDA) Forest Service's Comprehensive Environmental Response,
Liability Act (CERCLA) Program. Tribal participants were provided
valuable information from environmental and mining attorneys about
effectively engaging with the regulatory agencies. By providing
updates on mine sites within the brownfield inventory, the OVK
program is able to enhance its ability to provide oversight of ongoing
site work, while also providing mechanisms and resources for
meaningful public participation.
United States
Environmental Protection
CERCLA Section I28(a) State and Tribal Response Program Funding September/October 2014 EPA-560-F-I4-2I7
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