w5 Brownfields 2000 Job Training Pilot Fact Sheet City of Hamilton, OH 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 Hamilton for a Brownfields Job Training and Development Demonstration Pilot. The City of Hamilton is the recipient of a Brownfields Assessment Pilot and a Brownfields Cleanup Revolving Loan Fund Pilot. The City of Hamilton (population 65,000) is located in southeastern Ohio, approximately 20 miles north of Cincinnati. The Job Training Pilot will focus on the state Enterprise Zone, which contains approximately half of the city's residents. Thirteen percent of the residents living within the Enterprise Zone are minorities. Residents of the economically depressed Enterprise Zone suffer from a 12 percent unemployment rate and 36 percent poverty rate (statistics based on the 1990 census). Hamilton has been designated by the State of Ohio as one of the State's seven Distressed Communities. The Enterprise Zone includes an abundance of older manufacturing facilities, many of which have not been modernized for decades. Many of these facilities are vacant or their use has shifted from their original intended use. The loss of jobs caused by disinvestment in these facilities has decreased the community's economic vitality and increased the number of abandoned and underused properties. Training of local residents is needed to complement the redevelopment efforts Pilot Snapshot Date of Announcement: 05/01/2000 Amount: $200,000 Profile: The Pilot will train 36 participants as environmental technicians. Students will be recruited from unemployed, Welfare-to-Work, and other disadvantaged residents in the state Enterprise Zone, which is economically depressed because of the presence of many, abandoned, underused, and potentially contaminated industrial and commercial facilities. 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: City of Hamilton, Ohio (513)868-5855 Objectives The City of Hamilton plans to train 36 participants, achieve a 70 percent placement rate, and support career placement of graduates for one year after the training is completed. Participants will be recruited from unemployed, Welfare-to-Work, and other disadvantaged residents of the Enterprise Zone. The 195-hour Pilot training program will cover environmental awareness, OSHA 40-hour health and safety, emergency response, remediation technologies, environmental sampling, lead abatement, incident command, and technology demonstrations, including training in the use of innovative assessment and cleanup technologies. Refresher courses will be offered in the second year of the training program. United States Environmental Protection Agency Washington, DC 20450 Solid Waste and Emergency Response (5105T) EPA 500-F-00-171 May 00 ------- instituted through the two existing EPA pilots and provide livable wage jobs for residents of the Enterprise Zone. The City of Hamilton's training efforts will be supported by organizations such as the University of Findlay, Butler County Department of Human Services, Butler County Private Industry Council, and Support to Encourage Low-Income Families (SELF). The U.S. Department of Energy, through its contractor Fluor Daniel Fernald, has committed to providing demonstrations on the operation of various remediation technologies. The Greater Hamilton Chamber of Commerce has committed to conducting a survey of local environmental employers to determine their hiring needs. The City of Hamilton offers tax incentives to employers for hiring low-to-middle income local residents. Activities Activities planned as part of this Pilot include: • Conducting outreach to recruit unemployed, Welfare-to-Work, and other disadvantaged residents in the state Enterprise Zone; • Conducting brownfields technician training, including courses in the use of innovative assessment and cleanup technologies; and • Supporting career placement of students for one year after the job training is completed. 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-00-171 j. j.- a ancl Emergency .. __ Protection Agency Response (5105T) MaV00 Washington, DC 20450 ^ v ' ------- |