s OA Brownfields 2001 Job Training Pilot Fact Sheet
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/ Boston Connects People to Economic Opportunity, Inc. Boston, 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 has selected Boston Connects People to Economic
Opportunity, Inc. (BCI) for a Brownfields Job Training
and Development Demonstration Project. BCI's
assessment pilot partner is the City of Boston. The City
also has received a Brownfields Cleanup Revolving Loan
Fund Pilot. The Brownfields Assessment Pilot targets the
City's federal Empowerment Zone (population 57,640).
Three-quarters of the diverse Empowerment Zone
population are minorities (African American, Hispanic,
and Asian). The poverty rate in the Empowerment Zone
is nearly 36% and the unemployment rate exceeds 16%.
The Job Training Pilot also will focus on Boston's
Empowerment Zone. As industries have been phased out
of the city and moved to suburban greenfields, parts of
Boston have been left littered with abandoned and vacant
properties. The State of Massachusetts has identified 455
brownfields within Empowerment Zone neighborhoods
of Boston. There is a need for providing training to
Empowerment Zone residents that will enable them to
take advantage of employment opportunities created by
ongoing and planned redevelopment projects at
brownfields sites in their neighborhoods.
Pilot Snapshot
Date of Announcement: 12/01/2000
Amount: $200,000
Profile: The Pilot will train 90 participants as
environmental technicians. Students will be recruited
from neighborhoods within Boston's Empowerment
Zone, within which active and projected brownfields
cleanup and redevelopment projects have created a
strong demand for environmental technicians.
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 Boston,MA
(617)918-5225
Objectives
BCI plans to train 90 participants, achieve an 85%
placement rate, and support career placement of
graduates for two years after the training is completed.
Participants will be recruited from the Empowerment
Zone. The 12-week Pilot training program will consist
of introduction to environmental science, introduction to
brownfields remediation, introduction to surveying,
environmental field sampling, workplace safety and
tools training, lead and asbestos abatement,
HAZWOPER, wastewater treatment, alternative
remediation, alternative technologies, clean
technologies, environmental management systems, and
toxic use reduction, including training in the use of
innovative assessment and remediation technologies.
BCI's training efforts will be supported by organizations
such as the Boston Public Health Commission, Boston
United States
Environmental
Protection Agency
Washington, DC 20450
Solid Waste
and Emergency
Response (5105T)
EPA 500-F-00-270
Dec 00

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Redevelopment Authority, the New England
Consortium, Suffolk County House of Correction,
Roxbury Community College, STRIVE-Boston
Employment Service, and Women in the Building
Trades. Local developers and remediation firms that are
actively involved in major brownfields redevelopment
projects have committed to hiring graduates. In
addition, developers must honor first-source hiring
agreements as a condition of Empowerment Zone bond
financing.
Activities
Activities planned as part of this Pilot include:
•	Conducting outreach to recruit residents from
Boston's Empowerment Zone;
•	Conducting environmental technician training,
including courses in the use of innovative
assessment and cleanup technologies; and
•	Supporting career placement of students for two
years 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
Environmental
Protection Agency
Washington, DC 20450
and Emergency
Response (5105T)
Solid Waste
EPA 500-F-00-270
Dec 00

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