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Brownfields 2002 Assessment Pilot Fact Sheet
Broome County, New York
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 Broome County for a Brownfields
Assessment Pilot. Broome County (population 200,536)
is located in south central New York. The county has
identified 83 brownfields that occupy over 1,800 acres as
potential targets for this Pilot. These brownfields include
former dry cleaning facilities, metal forging plants,
high-technology manufacturing facilities, pesticide
storage areas, and dump sites. The underutilized or
abandoned facilities have deteriorated, causing
disinvestment by neighboring property owners.
The county has a long history of industrial development
that is concentrated in the City of Binghamton and the
Town of Union, the county's largest urban areas.
However, changes in manufacturing methods have led to
industrial downsizing and some facility closures. The
county was particularly hard hit by defense downsizing
and the loss of several thousand IBM jobs during the last
decade. Population has decreased by nearly 10 percent
over the last 30 years. Manufacturing employment has
declined 40 percent since 1985, and since 1989, poverty
rates have increased by 31 percent. The declining
population and rising poverty rates are most pronounced
in the urban core of the county. These blighted urban
areas also have the greatest concentration of minority
residents: more than 81 percent of the county's
Pilot Snapshot
Date of Announcement: 05/01/2002
Amount: $200,000
Profile: Broome County, New York. The Pilot
targets underused or abandoned facilities that have
deteriorated, causing disinvestment by neighboring
property owners and contributing to the area's
economic decline.
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 2 Brownfields Team
(212) 637-4309
EPA Region 2 Brownfields Web site
(http://www.epa.gov/region02/brownfields/)
Grant Recipient: Broome County,NY
(607)778-2367
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Objectives
The county's objective is to revitalize communities by
redeveloping brownfields, thereby encouraging
reinvestment in blighted neighborhoods. To accomplish
this objective, the Pilot plans to develop a tool for
county planners that can be used to address
environmentally contaminated sites while conducting
the Binghamton Metropolitan Transportation Study
(Gateway Study) and during the development of the
county's Plan for Sustainable Economic Development.
Pilot funds will also be used to conduct environmental
site assessments and develop cleanup and reuse plans.
Activities
Activities planned as part of this Pilot include:
• Continuing to develop and refine screening
criteria that will be used to select targeted
properties;
United States
Environmental
Protection Agency
Washington, DC 20450
Solid Waste
and Emergency
Response (5105T)
EPA 500-F-02-040
May 02

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Union.
•	Conducting Phase I and II environmental
assessments on targeted properties;
•	Preparing a concept plan and risk-based reuse
plan for each site selected for assessment;
•	Conducting outreach meetings with the owners
of targeted sites;
•	Holding public meetings to inform the public
about project activities and solicit input for
redevelopment plans; and
•	Issuing a request for proposals for site
characterization and engineering evaluations for
the targeted sites.
The cooperative agreement for this Pilot has not yet
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.
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