EPA Redevelopment Resources Brownfields o Assessment Grants: Assessment grants provide funding for a grant recipient to inventory, characterize, assess, and conduct planning and community involvement related to brownfields sites, o Cleanup Grants: Cleanup grants provide funding for a grant recipient to carry out cleanup activities at brownfields sites o Area-Wide Planning Grants (AWP): Grant funding to communities to research, plan and develop implementation strategies for an area affected by one or more brownfields. Developing an area- wide plan will inform the assessment, cleanup and reuse of brownfields properties and promote area-wide revitalization. o Environmental Workforce Development and Job Training Grants (EWDJT): Environmental workforce development and job training grants are designed to provide funding to eligible entities, including nonprofit organizations, to recruit, train, and place predominantly low-income and minority, unemployed and under-employed residents of solid and hazardous waste-impacted communities with the skills needed to secure full-time, sustainable employment in the environmental field and in the assessment and cleanup work taking place in their community, o Training. Research, and Technical Assistance Grants: Training, research, and technical assistance grants provide funding to eligible organizations to provide training, research, and technical assistance to facilitate brownfields revitalization. o Targeted Brownfields Assessment (TBA): EPA contractor conducts Phase l/ll environmental site assessments, risk assessments, and develop cleanup options and cost estimates based on potential future use. o Technical Assistance to Brownfields Communities (TAB): The TAB program provides technical assistance to communities and other stakeholders on brownfields issues with the goal of increasing the community's understanding and involvement in brownfields cleanup and revitalization, and helping to move brownfields sites forward toward cleanup and reuse. The TAB grantees funded by EPA serve as an independent resource assisting communities with community involvement, better understanding the health impacts of brownfield sites, science and technology relating to brownfields site assessment, remediation, and site preparation activities, brownfields finance questions, information on integrated approaches to brownfields cleanup and redevelopment, facilitating stakeholder involvement, identifying sources of brownfields assessment and cleanup funding, understanding and complying with state brownfields and voluntary cleanup program requirements, and facilitating redevelopment activities, o Council of Development Finance Agencies (CDFA): The CDFA Brownfields Technical Assistance Program is made possible by a grant from the U.S. EPA and is intended to provide technical assistance and resources on brownfields redevelopment financing. CDFA is a national association dedicated to the advancement of development finance concerns and interests, o Groundwork USA: Groundwork USA is a national organization the engages local businesses, residents and government officials to revitalize neighborhoods and transform community liabilities into community assets. They have a network of 20 local Trusts based in small "legacy" cities, in underserved neighborhoods within larger cities, and in rural communities- all frequently overlooked by funders and policymakers, o Hazardous Materials Training and Research Institute at Eastern Iowa Community College (HMTRI): The Hazardous Materials Training and Research Institute (HMTRI) at Eastern Iowa Community College is an environmental health and safety education and training organization. HMTRI promotes ------- environmental worker health and safety and the maintenance of a clean and safe environment through education and training. HMTRI offers and promotes educational opportunities, partnerships, and training programs related to Brownfields cleanup and redevelopment, o Hazardous Waste Clean-Up Information (CLU-IN): The CLU-IN Web Site provides information about innovative treatment and site characterization technologies to the hazardous waste remediation community. It describes programs, organizations, publications, and other tools for federal and state personnel, consulting engineers, technology developers and vendors, remediation contractors, researchers, community groups, and individual citizens, o The Brownfields and Land Revitalization Technology Support Center (BTSC): Decision-makers involved with preparing brownfields sites for productive reuse often require technical and legal assistance to fully understand the complexities of investigating and cleaning up contaminated sites. EPA created the BTSC in 1998 to help decision-makers: evaluate strategies to streamline the site investigation and cleanup process, identify and review information about complex technology options, evaluate contractor capabilities and recommendations, complex technologies to communities, and technical assistance o Public Infrastructure Coordination Assessment and Planning Tool: Focuses on municipal water, wastewater, storm water, and road infrastructure. However, the principles can be applied more broadly to consider other assets (e.g. municipal buildings, schools, parks, etc.) o Technical Assistance Grant (TAG): Helps communities participate in Superfund cleanup decision- making. It provides funding to community groups to contract their own technical advisor to interpret and explain technical reports, site conditions, and EPA's proposed cleanup proposals and decisions. An initial grant up to $50,000 is available to qualified community groups, o EPA Environmental Finance Centers: The Environmental Finance Center (EFC), housed within Wichita State University's Hugo Wall School of Public Affairs, is one of 10 university-based centers across the country that provides communities with professional training, technical assistance and applied research to equip officials in making sound financial and environmental decisions. Smart Growth EPA's Office of Community Revitalization occasionally offers hands on technical assistance to support activities that improve the quality of development and protect human health and the environment. o Building Blocks for Sustainable Communities: One- to two-day, targeted technical assistance to give communities tools to implement smart growth development approaches. Eligible applicants are tribal, county, and local governments, and nonprofit organizations that have the support of the local government on whose behalf they are applying. ° Cool & Connected: Helps rural communities use broadband service to revitalize main streets and promote economic development. Any community representative can apply, o Governors' Institute on Community Design: Helps governors help their states develop in an environmentally and economically sound way. States are eligible to apply. ° Greening America's Communities: Helps cities and towns envision and implement design strategies for more sustainable communities. In 2018, the program will serve communities in partnership with the EPA Office of Water Stormwater Management Program. ° Healthy Places for Healthy People: Helps communities create walkable, healthy, economically vibrant places by engaging with their health care facility partners such as community health centers (including Federally Qualified Health Centers), nonprofit hospitals, and other health care facilities. Eligible applicants include local government representatives, health care facilities, local ------- health departments, nonprofit organizations, tribes, and others proposing to work in a neighborhood, town, or city anywhere in the United States. ° local Foods. Local Places: Helps communities develop and implement action plans that promote local foods and downtown revitalization. Representatives of communities anywhere in the United States are eligible to apply. ° Smart Growth Implementation Assistance: Works with public-sector entities that want to incorporate smart growth techniques into their development. As of 2015, EPA's regional staff identifies and selects communities to assist. ° Special Smart Growth Technical Assistance Projects: Additional technical assistance projects done in partnership with other entities. Environmental Justice Small Grants Program: The Environmental Justice Small Grants Program supports and empowers communities working on solutions to local environmental and public health issues. The program is designed to help communities understand and address exposure to multiple environmental harms and risks. Environmental Justice Small Grants fund projects up to $30,000, depending on the availability of funds in a given year. All projects are associated with at least one qualified environmental statute. Environmental Education fEEl Grant: Under the Environmental Education Grants Program, EPA seeks grant proposals from eligible applicants to support environmental education projects that promote environmental awareness and stewardship and help provide people with the skills to take responsible actions to protect the environment. This grant program provides financial support for projects that design, demonstrate, and/or disseminate environmental education practices, methods, or techniques. Agency for Toxics Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) R Brownfield/Land Reuse Health Program: Community health considerations are important parts of ATSDR's land revitalization activities. As such, through its Land Reuse Health Program, ATSDR works to conduct the following activities: promote a well-rounded approach to redevelopment, include health as an important part of redevelopment, grow community resources to promote health, measure changes in community health, encourage early community involvement in decision making, restore and revitalize communities in a way that is fair to all community groups, promote relationships among, agencies, partners, and communities, improve ways to talk about health and environmental risks. Office of Underground Storage Tanks (OUST) o OUST discretionary funding for technical assistance for site redevelop associated with underground storage tanks. Superfund Redevelopment Initiative o Site reuse planning o Ready-for-reuse fact sheets RE-Powering America's Land: Offers mapping and screening tools, solar and wind decision trees, feasibility studies and fact sheets. ------- EPA Office of Brownfields and Land Revitalization/Office of Land and Emergency Management o EPA Land Revitalization Technical Assistance Call for Regional Projects 2018: EPA Land Revitalization (LR) Team encourages communities to redevelop and reuse previously contaminated properties sustainably. Our work supports the development and use of innovative and sustainable approaches and tools for revitalization, promoting these practices as standards by which communities approach the assessment, cleanup and reuse of brownfield properties. We use contractor support to provide direct TA to communities who wish to incorporate sustainable and equitable approaches to their locally-driven land revitalization projects. o Land Revitalization Technical Assistance 2018 Request to EPA Regional Brownfields Area-Wide Planning Project Officers: EPA OLEM Land Revitalization Program strives to restore land and other natural resources into sustainable community assets that maximize beneficial economic, ecological and social uses, and ensure protection of human health and the environment. This opportunity will assist three brownfields area-wide planning (BF AWP) grantee communities in 2018 with approximately $30K each in direct contractor support designed to help each grantee work through a specific challenge/barrier that is standing in the grantee's way of implementing their area-wide plan and making progress toward their revitalization vision. • Land Revitalization Program Tools for Communities o (PREPARED) Workbook: The workbook guides local decision makers through a step-by- step process for determining how to facilitate reuse of contaminated properties by considering acquisition and non-acquisition property recovery actions. While intended primarily for use by municipalities, the workbook also can be used by states, counties, tribes, and quasi-governmental entities. It also includes user-friendly worksheets to help document and guide the property transaction and redevelopment process, o Community Reuse Property Prioritization Tool: Is designed to help communities prioritize properties based on a specific reuse plan. The tool also supports communities in developing a low-level inventory that can be used to prioritize brownfields for future assessment, cleanup, and redevelopment by capturing information that will help estimate the complexity of such activities. This tool, which includes a Handbook and an Excel Workbook, can help a community better understand property characteristics, ownership, environmental conditions, cleanup requirements, and reuse planning to make more informed decisions, o Public Infrastructure Coordination Assessment and Planning Tool: The tool is intended to assist communities in identifying opportunities to leverage investments across systems by taking a more coordinated approach to infrastructure management. It builds on the principles and best practices in public infrastructure Asset Management (AM) and can be used by communities to assess progress and consider the benefits of a coordinated, cross-system, cross-department, or city-wide AM approach, o Brownfields Stakeholder Forum Kit Is designed to help communities design, plan and conduct forums that bring together groups of stakeholders to focus on a brownfields project. The kit walks users through a process for planning stakeholder forums that have a clear purpose, a strategically conceived agenda, and that are well-designed to solicit the participation and involvement of key stakeholders. The kit includes a list of planning activities, tips for choosing speakers and a facilitator, a model agenda, suggestions for handouts and visuals, lists of potential stakeholder groups to invite, and pointers on ------- forum logistics, including managing registrations, room layouts, and audio visual equipment. o The Economic Development and Climate Resilience Planning Tool Report: Drafted by EPA's technical assistance team outlined nationally applicable examples of relevant regulatory standards, incentives, and guidelines for communities to consider as they update their zoning and subdivision regulations, o The On the Road to Reuse: Residential Demolition Bid Specification Development Tool: Helps users anticipate environmental issues and concerns with demolition so they can factor them into the planning and procurement process. The tool also provides guidance for developing contract language for bid packages that instructs contractors on specific technical requirements to achieve improved environmental results in a demolition project. Also: Deconstruction Rapid Assessment Tool o Urban Farm Business Plan Handbook Urban Farm Business Plan Handbook. Urban Farm UjjbaiiRijTQj^ugm Sereadsheets o Brownfields and Urban Agriculture: Interim Guidelines for Safe Gardening Practices Provides a process and set of recommendations for developing agricultural reuse projects on sites with an environmental history, o Aquaponics Business Plan—User Guide for Communities ¦ Aquaponics Business Plan—User Guide for Communities https://www.epa.gov/Iaini-revitalIizatioin/aquapoinics-busiiness-plIain-useir- guide ¦ Aquaponics Business Plan—User Guide https://www.epa.gov/sites/piroiuctioin/filles/2016- 09/documents/l_aquaponics_business_plan_guide_508_081116.pdf ¦ Aquaponics Worksheets PDF https://www.epa.gov/sites/piroiuctioin/filles/2016- 09/documents/2a_aquaponics_business_plan_ worksheets_word_081116.pdf ¦ Aquaponics Worksheets (Excel) https://www.epa.gov/land- revitalization/aouaponics-business-plan-user-guide Legal Tools o Comfort/Status Letters: EPA may issue comfort/status letters to address the following: status of the site; future anticipated actions at the site; available liability protections; reasonable steps that a purchaser should take to stop any on-going releases and prevent future releases at sites where EPA has this information; and the status of EPA liens. o Ready for Reuse (RfR) Determinations: EPA may issue an RfR Determination to affirm that a site's conditions are protective of human health and the environment for specific types of uses. o BFPP "Doing Work" Agreements: EPA may enter into a settlement agreement with a BFPP who wishes to perform part or all of a cleanup. The agreement provides for EPA oversight and may satisfy part or all of any windfall lien. ------- Lien Settlements: EPA is willing to enter into negotiations and settlement agreements to resolve lien issues and facilitate reuse. Discussions: EPA Regional staff is often available to talk with or meet with prospective purchasers, sellers, lenders, and other stakeholders to discuss the issues critical to the successful purchase and reuse of a Superfund site. Providing examples of other Superfund sites that were successfully redeveloped and are now in reuse can also reassure local citizens and stakeholders about revitalization opportunities. Site Reuse Fact Sheets: EPA's Superfund Redevelopment Initiative Web site at http://www.epa.gov/superfund/programs/recycle/ provides summary information about Superfund sites that have been reused. Detailed fact sheets for some sites are also available and may include data on economic impacts and environmental and social benefits resulting from the reuse of Superfund sites. Partial Deletions: While total cleanup of a site may take many years, many sites on EPA's national priorities list (NPL) include portions that have been cleaned up and may be available for productive use. These portions may be partially deleted from the NPL if EPA makes a determination that no further cleanup work is required, the state concurs, and necessary institutional controls are in place. Any person, including individuals, businesses, entities, states, local governments, and other federal agencies, may submit a petition requesting a partial deletion. EPA will evaluate the request and make a determination whether to proceed. A partial deletion of a portion of a Superfund site from the NPL can help to increase the site's marketability. Please note: EPA Superfund liens may still apply to the deleted parcel. More information on partial deletions is available on EPA's Superfund Web site at http://www.epa.gov/superfund/cleanup/postconstruction/deletion.htm. Information about many of these tools can also be found on EPA's Landowner Liability Protections Web page at: http://www.epa.gov/compliance/cleanup/revitalization/landowner.html. ------- |