Brownfields Success Story A LocaJ Manufacturing Expansion Takes Flight Wellsburg, West Virginia Banner Fiberboard Company provided fiber-recycling services and manufactured paperboard products in Wellsburg, West Virginia until the plant closed in 2007. In 2013, Eagle Manufacturing Company opened a 100,000-square-foot distribution center and 1,200-square-foot office space on the site. The company, whose existing operations are across the street from the new site, produces industrial safety and hazardous material handling products. The company hired 32 additional full-time workers to work at the new distribution center and offices. The Cleanup In 2009, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) awarded a Brownfield Assessment Grant to the Brooke-Hancock-Jefferson Metropolitan Planning and Development Council to address hazardous conditions on the 3.2-acre property. Phase I and Phase II assessments revealed arsenic and petroleum, and approximately $85,000 of EPA funds were used for cleanup. By addressing the contamination, EPA funds helped leverage more than $16.2 million in additional investment to redevelop the site for productive use. The Benefits Redeveloping the site has benefitted the community by creating new jobs and reducing environmental health and safety risks. Plus, restoring the property to productive use has led to other economic revitalization and increased local tax revenue, which can be reinvested in the community. Wellsburg City Manager Mark Henne says, "The EPA funds were well spent in identifying and removing site contaminants to get a blighted block cleaned up and purchased by one of our local industries." The new warehouse and distribution center were designed to expand and make the shipping department more convenient and efficient. EPA Grant Recipient: Brooke-Hancock-Jefferson Metropolitan Planning and Development Council EPA Grant Type: Brownfield Assessment Former Use: Paper and Fiber Production Current Use: Manufacturing Industrial Safety and Hazardous Material Handling Products We had to get the site cleaned up. EPA helped get us started on the path to reuse. Mark Henne, Wellsburg City Manager &EPA United States Environmental Protection Agency For more information: Visit the EPA Brownfields website at www.epa.gov/brownfields or contact Joe Nowak at 215-814-3303 or Nowak.Joseph@epa.gov. ||PA..S60:-!F-TP2T5 October 20T? ------- |