s OA Brownfields 1996 Assessment Pilot Fact Sheet
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Northwest Indiana Cities
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 Region 5 selected the Cities of Gary, East Chicago,
and Hammond in Indiana (known as Northwest Indiana),
in partnership with EPA's Common Sense Initiative (CSI)
Iron and Steel Sector Brownfields Workgroup, for a
Regional Brownfields Pilot. This Pilot complements a
geographic initiative being conducted by EPA's Region 5
and the Indiana Department of Environmental
Management (IDEM) to respond to environmental
degradation in Northwest Indiana. Northwest Indiana has
been home to heavy industry for the last century. Major
land use changes since the 1970s have resulted in
downsizing of industry and creation of numerous
brownfields in prime locations. Since 1980, industrial
employment declined by 35 percent and population
decreased by 18 percent. A combined total of 3,875 acres
of abandoned industrial properties exist in Gary, East
Chicago, and Hammond. Potential environmental
liability, vague cleanup guidelines, and lack of financing
are thwarting their reuse while the tax base shrinks and
employment and property values fall. Working with the
CSI Iron and Steel Brownfields Workgroup, site
assessment, cleanup, and redevelopment issues particular
to the industry in the region are being addressed.
Pilot Snapshot
Date of Announcement: 07/01/1996
Amount: $200,000
Profile: The Pilot targets brownfields formerly used
in the iron and steel industries in the Cities of Gary,
Hammond and East Chicago in Northwest Indiana.
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 5 Brownfields Team
(312)886-7576
EPA Region 5 Brownfields Web site
(http://www.epa.gov/R5Brownfields)
Grant Recipient: Indiana Department of
Environmental Management
(219)881-6712
Objectives
The objectives of the brownfields project are to identify
and remove threats to health and safety, and restore
brownfields impacted by the iron and steel industry to
productive use. The project is dedicated to the
restoration of the economic and environmental health of
the three cities through a broad stakeholder partnership
and extensive community involvement. The cities have
identified three major aims: 1) identifying and removing
threats to the health and safety of residents caused by
environmental degradation at the brownfields; 2)
restoring brownfields to productive use by appropriate
cleanup; and 3) creating sustainable economic
opportunities with new jobs while protecting the
environment.
Activities
The Pilot has:
• Selected one brownfields site in each of the three
United States
Environmental
Protection Agency
Washington, DC 20450
Solid Waste
and Emergency
Response (5105T)
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communities as focal points of the Pilot, with
input from a series of public meetings. These
sites are the West Point Industrial Park in
Hammond, American Steel Foundries in East
Chicago, and Gary Machine in Gary; and
•	Publicized Pilot activities in a variety of ways
including: a radio talk-show appearance by Pilot
representatives; an article in Barron's magazine;
and a cable TV program on the Pilot aired in
January 1997.
The Pilot is:
•	Coordinating with the EPA Common Sense
Initiative Iron and Steel Sector Brownfields
Workgroup and integrating the "Brownfields
Guiding Principles," developed by the
Workgroup into the Pilots' activities;
•	Conducting site assessments of candidate
redevelopment properties, and developing
remediation plans and objectives;
•	Evaluating existing remediation legal authorities
and their impact on the redevelopment of the
sites; and
•	Developing a professional resource manual to
promote information about and investment in
brownfields redevelopment in Northwest Indiana.
Leveraging Other Activities
Experience with the Northwest Indiana Cities Pilot has
been a catalyst for related activities including the
following.
•	IDEM has contributed $200,000 to the Pilot to
match EPA's funding.
•	Based on the Pilot's community input process for
site selection, the IDEM conducted site
assessments on the American Steel and West
Point Sites. IDEM has indicated that no
remediation will be required.
•	As a result of the Pilot's media efforts,
relationships with a wide array of stakeholders
were developed. Four individuals representing
major redevelopment projects in the area have
contacted the Pilot requesting the Pilot's
participation and assistance.
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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j. i- a	ancl Emergency	..
Protection Agency	Response (5105T)	MaV97
Washington, DC 20450	^ v '

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United States	c
Environmental	anri Fmpflpn™	EPA 500-F-97-060
j. i- a	ancl Emergency	.. __
Protection Agency	Response (5105T)	MaV97
Washington, DC 20450	^ v '

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