s jQLI Brownfields 1997 Assessment Pilot Fact Sheet



/ Jacksonville, FL

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 selected the City of Jacksonville for a Brownfields
Pilot. Historically, Jacksonville's port has served as a
major commercial center. Agricultural, petroleum, and
paper product industries, in particular, have dominated
the commercial market supporting Jacksonville.
Commerce that flourished for more than a century has
subsided, leaving more than 100 downtown sites with
known or suspected soil and groundwater contamination.

Pilot Snapshot

Date of Announcement: 09/01/1997
Amount: $200,000

Profile: The Pilot focuses on underused or vacant
contaminated properties within the Talleyrand
Redevelopment Area and the adjacent neighborhood
of East Jacksonville.

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: Jacksonville,FL
(904) 630-2333

Private and public initiatives have begun to revitalize the
area. Initiatives include construction of a new sports
complex, increased private sector investments, municipal
bond funding used for public improvements, and Port
Authority efforts to improve and expand the downtown's
port facilities. The city anticipates that Pilot funding will
provide seed money for site assessments and cleanup
planning, act as a catalyst for matching funds, motivate
partnerships, centralize efforts to address brownfields,
and solidify community support.

Objectives

Jacksonville's objectives are to establish a
redevelopment process with defined policies,
procedures, and mechanisms that will restore
brownfields sites into economically productive
properties, create new jobs, and increase the quality of
life for nearby inner-city neighborhoods. The city
anticipates that the Pilot, through its work in the
Talleyrand Redevelopment Area and East Jacksonville,
will create a process that can be replicated in other
industrial urban core neighborhoods, port cities, and
similar waterfront properties.

Activities

The Pilot has:

•	Created an inventory of 162 brownfields in the
Pilot target area;

•	Completed a Brownfields Redevelopment
Program brochure and a workshop manual as

United States
Environmental
Protection Agency
Washington, DC 20450

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and Emergency
Response (5105T)

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part of its community involvement efforts;

•	Developed a brownfields web page located
within the city's web site;

•	Developed a quarterly brownfields newsletter;

•	Prepared a draft library of speakers for
redevelopment and brownfields issues; and

•	Created a base city map that includes zoning,
existing and future land use, 100-year floodplain
and land cover, well locations, and information
on the area's groundwater, including groundwater
table elevations, hydraulic conductivity,
transmissivity, and storage coefficients.

The Pilot is:

•	Working on the Deer Creek Sub-Basin
Groundwater Study in an effort to develop a
groundwater model for the basin;

•	Evaluating environmental justice concerns in the
Pilot area and implementing community
involvement activities;

•	Developing an information repository including
brownfields site information and groundwater
data linked to a geographic information system
(GIS);

•	Identifying the roles of cooperating agencies and
organizations needed for site redevelopment;

•	Identifying public and private funding sources
for site restoration;

•	Taking inventory of private water supplies in the
Pilot area and developing a groundwater model;
and

•	Developing site assessment and cleanup plans.

Leveraging Other Activities

Experience with the Jacksonville Pilot has been a

catalyst for related activities, including the following:

•	The St. Johns River Water Management District
provided a $100,000 in-kind contribution toward
development of a brownfields area groundwater
model.

•	The Florida Office of Trade and Industry
Development provided a $200,000 grant for
brownfields redevelopment.

•	The Florida Department of Environmental
Protection made a $50,000 in-kind contribution
for site assessment in the Pilot-targeted area.

•	The city received a joint U.S. Department of
Veterans Affairs (VA)/U.S. Department of
Housing and Urban Development (HUD) grant
that will be used to examine how stormwater

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utilities can be designed to address
contamination concerns in the Deer Creek
Sub-Basin and St. Johns River. Study results will
be used to propose regional stormwater
procedures and encourage redevelopment.
VA/HUD has provided $900,000 to date.

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-00-255
Dec 00


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