w5 PR Brownfields 1999 Assessment Pilot Fact Sheet Muskegon Heights, Ml 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 City of Muskegon Heights for a Brownfields Pilot. Muskegon Heights is a small community, approximately 3 square miles with 13,176 residents, 70 percent of whom are African American. Historically, the city accepted industrial waste for use as fill material and was home to metal foundries, machining operations, and pattern-making businesses that supported the automotive and defense industries. As these industries declined and left the city, Muskegon Heights continued to suffer from unemployment, poverty, and an increasing number of industrial brownfields. Thirty-five percent of the population lives in poverty, and the unemployment rate is 14 percent. The City of Muskegon Heights and its neighbor, Muskegon, is a U.S. Housing and Urban Development-designated Enterprise Community (EC). The city has also received a U.S. Department of Justice Weed & Seed Program grant that addresses crime and related social issues. Pilot Snapshot Date of Announcement: 06/01/1999 Amount: $200,000 Profile: The Pilot plans to inventory and prioritize brownfields in Muskegon Heights for assessment, cleanup and redevelopment. 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 5 Brownfields Team (312)886-7576 EPA Region 5 Brownfields Web site (http://www.epa.gov/R5Brownfields) Grant Recipient: Muskegon Heights, MI, City of (616)733-1355 Objectives Muskegon Heights' ultimate goal is the economic revitalization of the city through the cleanup and redevelopment of brownfields and the mitigation of risks to human health and the environment. To achieve this objective, the city will carefully integrate Pilot activities with those conducted with state funding for brownfields assessments. Together, these two projects and the newly created Brownfields Redevelopment Authority will create and implement a comprehensive, integrated brownfields strategy for the city. Activities Activities planned as part of this Pilot include: • Developing a comprehensive inventory of brownfields in the city; • Conducting an economic analysis of and prioritizing sites based on redevelopment potential; United States Environmental Protection Agency Washington, DC 20450 Solid Waste and Emergency Response (5105T) EPA 500-F-99-140 Jun 99 ------- • Developing a preliminary brownfields redevelopment plan, including a strategy for city acquisition of the 15 highest-priority sites; • Performing a compliance analysis to evaluate the potential contaminant exposure pathways; • Designing cleanup plans and estimating cleanup costs for the priority sites; and • Conducting public outreach and ensuring community involvement by holding five community outreach workshops, creating a Pilot web site, and developing communication materials. 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 Environmental Protection Agency Washington, DC 20450 and Emergency Response (5105T) Solid Waste EPA 500-F-99-140 Jun 99 ------- |