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Brownfields 1998 Assessment Pilot Fact Sheet
Omaha, NE
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 Omaha for a Brownfields
Pilot. The downtown riverfront has been the location of
heavy industrial activity for more than 100 years. As
these industrial facilities have closed or reduced the
scope of their operations, much of the land along the
riverfront has become underused or abandoned. Although
many of these industries once used the Missouri River
for shipment of raw materials or products, these
commonly contaminated properties now effectively cut
off the City and citizens of Omaha from making
productive use of this resource. In addition, overall
population shifts, coupled with the high level of business
relocation out of the inner city to the western suburbs,
have created corridors of distressed neighborhoods,
boarded-up industrial facilities, and vacant sites of
demolished structures.
The Pilot is targeting the North 11th Street Industrial
Redevelopment Area which lies within the boundaries of
established Federal and State Enterprise Zones and along
the Missouri River. These Enterprise Zones encompass
Omaha's greatest concentrations of abandoned housing;
23.4% of the residents live in poverty and 56.6% are
unemployed. To date, plans to revitalize and redevelop
these areas have been somewhat fractured due to a lack
of coordination among various municipal and State
Pilot Snapshot
Date of Announcement: 07/15/1998
Amount: $200,000
Profile: The City of Omaha is targeting the North
11th Street Industrial Redevelopment Area along the
Missouri River, which lies within the boundaries of
established Federal and State Enterprise Zones.
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: City of Omaha, Nebraska
(402) 444-5000
Objectives
The City's primary objective is to assess and revitalize
underused and abandoned properties along the Missouri
River in the North 11th Street Industrial Redevelopment
Area. With the assistance of a local non-profit the City
plans to bring together municipal and State agencies,
local neighborhood associations, business groups,
financial institutions, environmentalists, and other
interested parties to provide ideas into the plans for
environmental management and reuse of these
properties. The City expects to revitalize these
properties by integrating green space, recreational,
commercial and industrial uses in a way that supports
the Community's "Back to the River" vision of a green
corridor of public parks along the riverfront.
Activities
Activities planned as part of this Pilot include:
United States
Environmental
Protection Agency
Washington, DC 20450
Solid Waste
and Emergency
Response (5105T)
EPA 500-F-98-225
Jul 98

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agencies, private interests, and affected neighborhood
associations.
•	Performing detailed Phase I and Phase II
assessments, as appropriate, on the publically-
owned City Dock Board property and on at least
one or two additional brownfields in the North
11th Street Area;
•	Developing community outreach and
engagement activities focused on forming
partnerships to address the cleanup,
redevelopment and reuse of brownfields;
•	Identifying potential future land uses, appropriate
environmental actions to support those uses, and
potential barriers to redevelopment;
•	Exploring potential solutions to the
redevelopment barriers, such as identifying
possible sources of funding for cleanup and
redevelopment.
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	c
Environmental	anri Fmpflpn™	EPA 500-F-98-225
_ . .	and Emergency	. .
Protection Agency	Response (5105*0	Jul 98
Washington, DC 20450	^ v '

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Brownfields 1998 Supplemental Assessment
Pilot Fact Sheet
City of Omaha, Nebraska
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 City of Omaha supplemental
assistance for its Brownfields Assessment Demonstration
Pilot. Omaha is the largest city in eastern Nebraska. The
target area for the supplemental assistance encompasses
properties located west of the Pilot's initial study area
along the Missouri River. The targeted Northeast
Redevelopment District is a blighted industrial area
populated largely by minority residents. Area residents
suffer from a poverty rate of 56 percent and an
unemployment rate of 23 percent. These statistics are
drastically higher than citywide averages.
The original Pilot completed Phase I environmental
assessments, developed cleanup strategies, facilitated
public involvement, and conducted redevelopment
planning for three riverfront properties. Supplemental
funds will be used to maintain the revitalization
momentum begun under the original Pilot by assessing
and planning for the redevelopment of underused and
abandoned properties located west of the original Pilot
properties. Phase I environmental assessments will be
completed at a minimum of five properties in the
Northeast Redevelopment District. Phase II
environmental assessments will be completed at one or
more of the properties, depending on the findings of the
Phase I environmental assessments.
Pilot Snapshot
Date of Announcement: 05/01/2002
Amount: $150,000
Profile: City of Omaha, Nebraska. The Pilot plans to
assess and revitalize underused and abandoned
properties located in the blighted and economically
distressed Northeast Redevelopment District.
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: City of Omaha, Nebraska
(402) 444-3904
Objectives
Omaha's overall objective is to integrate redevelopment
of brownfields into an aggressive economic
development program targeting impacted portions of the
city, especially the Northeast Redevelopment District.
The supplemental assistance will be used to perform
Phase I and Phase II environmental assessments on
selected sites in the target area, involve the public in
land-use decisions, and develop a comprehensive
land-use redevelopment plan.
Activities
Activities planned as part of this Pilot include:
•	Conducting Phase I environmental assessments
on at least five underused and abandoned
properties in the Northeast Redevelopment
District;
•	Conducting Phase II environmental assessments
on one or more of the targeted properties,
United States
Environmental
Protection Agency
Washington, DC 20450
Solid Waste
and Emergency
Response (5105T)
EPA 500-F-02-107
May 02

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depending on Phase I findings;
•	Involving the public through workshops, public
meetings and project newsletters; and
•	Developing a comprehensive land-use
redevelopment plan.
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-02-107
May 02

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