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Brownfields 2001 Assessment Pilot Fact Sheet

St. Louis, Ml

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 St. Louis for a Brownfields
Assessment Pilot. St. Louis (population 4,309) is located
in the geographic center of Michigan. The area's overall
population growth in the last 20 years has been less than
5 percent, and 21 percent of the city's residents live at or
below the poverty level. Median household income in St.
Louis is 37 percent below the state average.

The city has experienced a decline in commercial and
industrial investment in the last 15 years, and has a
reputation for being polluted and unsightly due to the
presence of the Velsicol Chemical Co. Superfund site.
The industrial corridor along the Pine River in the
southern part of town is one of the oldest and most
blighted areas in the city. The city has identified between
35 and 40 potential brownfields properties that could be
readily developed if a cohesive strategy were developed
and implemented to move toward sustainable
development. The target properties for this Pilot project
would focus on commercial or industrial sites that may
be owned by private parties or owned by the city or state
through tax reversion.

Pilot Snapshot

Date of Announcement: 04/01/2001
Amount: $200,000

Profile: The Pilot will identify, prioritize, and assess
35 to 40 brownfield sites along the blighted industrial
corridor in the southern part of St. Louis.

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 5 Brownfields Team
(312)886-7576

EPA Region 5 Brownfields Web site
(http://www.epa.gov/R5Brownfields)

Grant Recipient: City of St. Louis,MI
(517) 681-4621

Objectives

The objective of this Pilot is to cleanup, redevelop, and
sustainably reuse brownfields properties in the City of
St. Louis. Through a community-based process, the
Pilot plans to complete an inventory of brownfields
properties using inventorying methods developed by
other Michigan Pilot projects. An extensive
community-based involvement process will be woven
throughout this Pilot which will involve the community
in Pilot activities and offer seminars to developers and
other interested parties. The majority of funds will be
used to perform Phase I and Phase II environmental site
assessments on high priority sites.

Activities

Activities planned as part of this Pilot include:

•	Initiating an inventory and prioritization system;

•	Prioritizing sites that have the highest economic
and social value for redevelopment;

United States
Environmental
Protection Agency
Washington, DC 20450

Solid Waste
and Emergency
Response (5105T)

EPA 500-F-01-275
Apr 01


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•	Completing Phase I and Phase II environmental
site assessments on the highest priority
brownfields; and

•	Presenting informational sessions targeting the
community, developers, bankers, and real estate
personnel.

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-01-275
Apr 01


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