w5 PR Brownfields 2000 Assessment Pilot Fact Sheet Fort Dodge, IA 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 Fort Dodge for a Brownfields Pilot. Fort Dodge is a city that has a population of 26,000 people and serves as a regional hub for about 100,000 people. Due to a devastated farm economy and the closing of a few of its large employers, the city experienced a very depressed economy in the 1970s and 1980s. Property values plummeted, and about 17 percent of the population left the city to find work in urban areas of larger cities and states. Since the mid-1990s, when community effort helped reverse a decision to close down a major employer, community pride and motivation have been high. The city has added new industry, diversified into value-added production, and begun a cleanup initiative. Pilot Snapshot Date of Announcement: 05/01/2000 Amount: $200,000 Profile: The City of Fort Dodge targets three sites within the city, all located along waterways in the greenbelt corridor system. 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 7 Brownfields Team (800)223-0425 EPA Region 7 Brownfields Web site (http://www.epa.gov/region7/cleanup/brown fields) Grant Recipient: Fort Dodge, IA (515) 573-8321 Objectives The City of Fort Dodge's goal is to complete the riverfront redevelopment project, which includes streambank stabilization, pond restoration, development of a footbridge, and encouragement of a private property owner to donate its riverfront property. The Pilot will facilitate these efforts by identifying any contamination problems in the project area and planning for cleanup at three targeted brownfields. The major redevelopment focus of the city is to make its Activities river corridor clean and safe for recreational use through its riverfront master plan. As the first step in the riverfront improvement plan, the Pilot will target three brownfield sites-Volunteer Park Junkyard (12 th Avenue, SW), Soldier Creek Dump (5 th Street), and the Hawkeye Avenue Elevator-all located along the Des Moines River or Soldier Creek and in the greenbelt corridor system. In addition, the sites are located in the city's oldest neighborhoods and are characterized as low-income areas (e.g., 24 percent of the families live in Activities planned as part of this Pilot include: • Conducting Phase I and II site investigations to determine whether the three targeted sites pose risks and need to be cleaned up; • Developing cleanup and mitigation plans at the targeted sites; and • Engaging community participation in the assessment and cleanup planning at the targeted sites. United States Environmental Protection Agency Washington, DC 20450 Solid Waste and Emergency Response (5105T) EPA 500-F-00-092 May 00 ------- JJWV1UJ J. 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-00-092 May 00 ------- |