W5 Brownfields 2000 Revolving Loan Fund Pilot Fact Sheet Gloucester, MA 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's Brownfields Economic Redevelopment Initiative is designed to empower states, communities, and other stakeholders in economic redevelopment to work together in a timely manner to prevent, assess, safely clean up, and sustainably reuse brownfields. A brownfield is a site, or portion thereof, that has actual or perceived contamination and an active potential for redevelopment or reuse. EPA is funding: assessment demonstration pilot programs (each funded up to $200,000 over two years), to assess brownfields sites and to test cleanup and redevelopment models; job training pilot programs (each funded up to $200,000 over two years), to provide training for residents of communities affected by brownfields to facilitate cleanup of brownfields sites and prepare trainees for future employment in the environmental field; and, cleanup revolving loan fund programs (each funded up to $500,000 over five years) to capitalize loan funds to make loans for the environmental cleanup of brownfields. These pilot programs are intended to provide EPA, states, tribes, municipalities, and communities with useful information and strategies as they continue to seek new methods to promote a unified approach to site assessment, environmental cleanup, and redevelopment. Pilot Snapshot Date of Announcement: 05/01/2000 Amount: $500,000 Profile: Downtown/waterfront 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 1 Brownfields Team (617)918-1424 EPA Region 1 Brownfields Web site (http://www.epa.gov/regionl/brownfields) Grant Recipient: City of Gloucester,MA (978)282-3027 Objectives Gloucester's BCRLF intends to assist the City's brownfields program in creating jobs, adding revenue to the City's tax base, and implementing quality of life improvements. The Gloucester BCRLF is targeting the City's downtown/waterfront areas. Potential cleanup sites include the Marine Railways site, the Linsky Junkyard, Cape Ann Forge, the Gloucester Paint Factory, and the Omniwave Electronics site. Activities Fund Structure and Operations Gloucester's Community Development Department will act as the lead agency and fund manager. The Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection will serve as site manager. The City anticipates making three to four loans in the initial round of lending. Gloucester's BCRLF will be integrated with the City's wide range of business development services and incentives. Through the Community Development Department, Gloucester offers a comprehensive program United States Environmental Protection Agency Washington, DC 20450 Solid Waste and Emergency Response (5105T) EPA 500-F-00-149 May 00 ------- of business support services including a tax increment financing program. Assistance also will be provided by the Massachusetts Industrial Financial Agency and the Massachusetts Development Financial Agency. In addition, the City plans to leverage BCRLF qualified projects with US Department of Housing and Urban Development Section 108 loans and/or Community Development Block Grants. Use of BCRLF Pilot funds must be in accordance with CERCLA, and all CERCLA restrictions on use of funding also apply to BCRLF funds. 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-00-149 May 00 ------- |