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Brownfields 1999 Assessment Pilot Fact Sheet

Augusta, GA

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 Augusta for a Brownfields
Pilot. Augusta's population of 205,000 is the second
largest in Georgia; however, many of the city's residents
live in poverty (67 percent). Augusta is home to a number
of industrial factories, many of which are in the Hyde
Park section of town. The residents of Hyde Park are
predominantly African American with low income levels.
In 1984, the Georgia Department of Natural Resources
determined that wells in Hyde Park had been
contaminated by many of the industrial factories in the
neighborhood.

The Pilot targets the 10.8-acre Goldberg Brothers'

Salvage Yard located at the main entrance to Hyde Park.
Originally the site was used for community vegetable
gardens, but in the past 30 years the site has operated as a
salvage yard. Community complaints led to an EPA
investigation that indicated high levels of lead and
arsenic on-site and the salvage yard was closed in 1998.
The site is situated among residences and is littered with
gas containers, tires, drums and tanks, vacant storage
buildings, and mounds of scrap metal. The closing of
other nearby factories has increased unemployment, and
the area suffers from crime and drug trafficking, some of
which occur on the site.

Pilot Snapshot

Date of Announcement: 06/01/1999
Amount: $200,000

Profile: The Pilot targets a 10-acre former salvage
yard in the Hyde Park section of Augusta.

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 4 Brownfields Team
(404) 562-8792

EPA Region 4 Brownfields Web site
(http ://www .epa.gov/region4/waste/bf)

Grant Recipient: City of Augusta,ME
(706)821-1831

Objectives

The City of Augusta has committed to assisting
community efforts to revitalize the Hyde Park
neighborhood, and is now working toward cleaning up
and redeveloping sites within the area. Several city
government offices, the Chamber of Commerce, the
Richmond County Health Department, and local
businesses have agreed to participate in improving the
Hyde Park area in various ways. The city will initiate
these efforts by creating a brownfields redevelopment
authority to oversee the Pilot's assessment, cleanup
planning and outreach activities. The city plans to use
the cleanup and redevelopment of the Goldberg Salvage
Yard site as a model for cleaning up other brownfields
sites in Augusta.

Activities

Activities planned as part of this Pilot include:

• Performing a site assessment at, and developing
cleanup and redevelopment plans for, the
Goldberg Salvage Yard;

United States
Environmental
Protection Agency
Washington, DC 20450

Solid Waste
and Emergency
Response (5105T)

EPA 500-F-99-129
Jun 99

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•	Developing a public participation plan that
includes sponsoring public forums and using
local college students for web-based
community-outreach activities; and

•	Performing site investigations and establishing
an inventory of additional brownfields sites in
Augusta.

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.

United States
Environmental
Protection Agency
Washington, DC 20450

and Emergency
Response (5105T)

Solid Waste

EPA 500-F-99-129
Jun 99

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