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Brownfields 1995 Assessment Pilot Fact Sheet
Oregon Mill Sites
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 the Oregon Economic Development
Department for a Brownfields Pilot. The Mill Site
Conversion Project, is a public/private partnership
created to return seven vacant mill sites in rural
communities to productive use. The Rural Development
Initiatives, Inc. is the lead organization of the partnership
that includes Pacific Corporation, U.S. Bank, and the law
firm of Stoel, Rives, Boley, Jones and Grey. In many of
these communities, these sites represent the only property
zoned for industrial use. To create new jobs, vacant sites
must be converted into usable, environmentally and
financially viable industrial property. Due to the risk and
liability associated with the sites, the mill properties have
either been abandoned and condemned by the
community for back taxes, or "warehoused" by mill
owners. Many sites contain chemicals, transformers, and
asbestos which are slowly deteriorating and pose a
potential threat to human health, soil, and groundwater.
These sites are located in the towns of Astoria, Bandon,
Coquille, Klamath Falls, Molalla, Myrtle Creek,
Philomoth, Sweet Home, and Tygh Valley and, and
cover more than 550 acres.
Pilot Snapshot
Date of Announcement: 07/26/1995
Amount: $200,000
Profile: The Pilot targets nine abandoned mill sites
located in Astoria, Bandon, Coquille, Klamath Falls,
Molalla, Myrtle Creek, Philomoth, Sweet Home, and
Tygh Valley. Collectively, the mill sites cover more
than 500 acres.
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 10 Brownfields Team
(206)553-7299
EPA Region 10 Brownfields Web site
(http://yosemite.epa.gov/R10/CLEANUP.NSF/
sites/bf)
Grant Recipient: Oregon Economic and Community
Development Department
(503) 581-5115
Objectives
The Mill Site Conversion Project is working to
rehabilitate vacant and abandoned mill sites into
productive industrial and commercial properties and
enable surrounding communities to recruit, expand, and
retain businesses. Ultimately, the project aims to bring
new and diverse employment opportunities to rural
areas in Oregon.
Activities
The Pilot has:
•	Formulated a scope of work for review by Rural
Development Initiatives, Inc. (RDI)'s mill site
advisory committee;
•	Begun Phase I and II environmental assessments
at seven vacant mill sites: and
United States
Environmental
Protection Agency
Washington, DC 20450
Solid Waste
and Emergency
Response (5105T)
EPA 500-F-97-027
May 97

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•	Published the Siteline newsletter to build
awareness in the community of the project's
progress and activities.
The Pilot is:
•	Developing assessment and cleanup approaches,
quantifying costs, and evaluating the potential
for generic cleanup remedies for the seven mill
sites in order to help developers assess their
cleanup liability, financing options, and
development risks, and to establish cleanup
standards for similar abandoned mill sites;
•	Creating a computer model to measure the costs
and benefits of various cleanup options, and to
help guide development of tax incentives and
other financial methods for encouraging
assessment, cleanup, and redevelopment. The
models will help community and regulatory
agencies assess the benefits of various financing
options while giving property owners and
developers a means to evaluate the benefits and
relative risks of redevelopment;
•	Developing site-specific reuse plans that are
consistent with redevelopment opportunities,
local economic development strategies,
infrastructure needs, environmental and land-use
planning requirements, and the goals of
developers;
•	Coordinating interaction between project
stakeholders and partners; and
•	Establishing Local Action Committees in
affected communities to ensure broad community
participation in the brownfield redevelopment
process.
Leveraging Other Activities Experience with the
Oregon Mills Pilot has been a catalyst for related
activities including the following.
•	Based on a risk assessment report, the Astoria
site has been identified as an opportunity for use
of planning funds in cooperation with Oregon's
Department of Environmental Quality and
ShoreTrust Advisory Services. ShoreTrust
Advisory Services loaned the City of Astoria
$700,000 for use in brownfields cleanup.
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.
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Brownfields 1995 Supplemental Assessment
Pilot Fact Sheet
Oregon Economic and Community Development Department
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 the Oregon Economic and Community
Development Department supplemental assistance for its
Brownfields Assessment Demonstration Pilot and
additional funding for assessments at brownfields
properties to be used for greenspace purposes. The
original Pilot developed the Mill Site Conversion
Project, a public/private partnership created to help
return 12 vacant mill sites in rural communities to
productive use. In many of these communities, these sites
represent the only property zoned for industrial use. To
create new jobs, vacant sites must be converted into
usable, environmentally and financially viable industrial
property. Due to the risk and liability associated with the
sites, the mill properties have either been abandoned and
condemned by the community for back taxes or
"warehoused" by mill owners. Many sites contain
chemicals, transformers, and asbestos that are slowly
deteriorating and pose a potential threat to human health,
soil, and groundwater.
Pilot Snapshot
Date of Announcement: 03/01/2000
Amount: $150,000
$50,000 for Greenspace
Profile: Oregon Economic and Community
Development Department. The Pilot targets three
sites in rural and economically distressed
communities, including one site for greenspace
creation.
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 10 Brownfields Team
(206)553-7299
EPA Region 10 Brownfields Web site
(http://yosemite.epa.gov/R10/CLEANUP.NSF/
sites/bf)
Grant Recipient: Oregon Economic and Community
Development Department
(503) 581-5115
Objectives
Oregon is working to rehabilitate vacant and abandoned
brownfields sites into productive industrial and
commercial properties and enable surrounding
communities to recruit, expand, and retain businesses.
Ultimately, the project aims to bring new and diverse
employment opportunities to rural, economically
distressed areas in Oregon.
Oregon's strategy includes focusing on the interface
between community involvement, site owner
participation, and a combination of state, federal, and
private funding. Using the supplemental assistance, the
Pilot will continue to focus its efforts on two sites from
the original Pilot (Modoc Mill and Avison Mill), as
well as one additional site yet to be determined. It is
United States
Environmental
Protection Agency
Washington, DC 20450
Solid Waste
and Emergency
Response (5105T)
EPA 500-F-00-040
Apr 00

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anticipated that the Modoc Mill and Avison Mill sites,
both of which are privately owned, will be subdivided
into parcels, some to be retained by the owners and
some to be targeted for redevelopment.
The Pilot will use the greenspace funding to conduct
environmental assessments at a 50-acre parcel of land
adjacent to the Avison Mill. This parcel of land is
located along Bear Creek and comprises wetlands and a
riparian habitat. The proposed use for this area is as a
greenspace that includes public trails.
To accomplish these objectives, the Pilot plans to:
•	Conduct additional Phase II assessments at the
Modoc Mill;
•	Conduct additional studies at the Avison Mill, as
deemed necessary by the Oregon Department of
Environmental Quality;
•	Conduct Phase I assessments at a site yet to be
determined;
•	Conduct water testing, Phase I assessments, and
additional studies on the greenspace property;
•	Develop a greenspace plan;
•	Create a list of vacant mill sites and other
potential rural brownfields sites in Oregon; and
•	Develop selection criteria to facilitate qualitative
assessment of those brownfields for potential
redevelopment.
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-00-040
Apr 00

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