w5 Brownfields 1999 Assessment Pilot Fact Sheet Oca/a, FL 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 Ocala for a Brownfields Pilot. Ocala (population 44,000) is one of the fastest-growing cities in the United States and occupies 39 square miles of Marion County. In 1900, Ocala was a center of industry; however, its downtown area currently has an unemployment rate of 20 percent and a poverty rate of 49 percent, as business and industry have closed down or moved out of the city. As the century progressed, the industries that once made Ocala prosper gradually moved to the outlying areas where land was more plentiful, less expensive, and closer to the interstate highway. Buildings and structures were left vacant and over time became blighted. The jobs at operations such as foundries, lumber mills, blacksmith shops, fertilizer plants, railroad depots, and newspaper plants moved away and many of the residential neighborhoods supporting these factories also fell into decline. In 1998, the city designated a 108-square-block area of downtown as a Community Redevelopment Area (CRA) in need of revitalization. There are 400 parcels of land in the CRA, many with unknown environmental contamination. Pilot Snapshot Date of Announcement: 06/01/1999 Amount: $200,000 Profile: The Pilot targets a 108-square-block area in downtown Ocala that has been designated a Community Redevelopment Area. 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 4 Brownfields Team (404) 562-8792 EPA Region 4 Brownfields Web site (http ://www .epa.gov/region4/waste/bf) Grant Recipient: City of Ocala,FL (352) 629-8359 Objectives Ogdensburg's Brownfields Pilot seeks to stimulate economic development of areas along the valuable waterfront through the assessment, cleanup and redevelopment of potentially contaminated properties. This will be accomplished by bringing together cooperative partners at the local, state and federal levels in a comprehensive effort to address environmental obstacles to development. The Pilot will also initiate community involvement mechanisms for cleanup and redevelopment processes. Activities Activities planned as part of this Pilot include: • Conducting Phase I and II site assessments in the redevelopment area; and • Hiring a Project Coordinator to provide support to the Pilot and conduct outreach. United States Environmental Protection Agency Washington, DC 20450 The cooperative agreement for this Pilot has not yet Solid Waste and Emergency Response (5105T) EPA 500-F-98-140 May 98 ------- 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-98-140 May 98 ------- |