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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

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•	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

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