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Brownfields 1997 Assessment Pilot Fact Sheet

Bucks County, PA

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 Bucks County as a Brownfields Pilot.
Since mid-century, the economic vitality of Bucks
County has centered around a manufacturing industrial
base located along the Delaware River. The loss of
10,000 jobs at U.S. Steel and industrial downsizing over
the past two decades have resulted in the county's high
unemployment rate. There are more than three square
miles of vacant industrial facilities, under-used buildings,
and abandoned properties in the county. Bucks County
secured an Enterprise Zone designation from the
Commonwealth of Pennsylvania in 1996. Three of the
municipalities in this Enterprise Zone are among the
county's most populous. County Commissioners are
trying to facilitate the revitalization of older, abandoned,
and under-used buildings within Bucks County,
particularly within these Enterprise Zone communities.
Businesses that want to locate in the county tend to avoid
brownfields and their suspected contamination despite
accessibility to a large, high-quality workforce and an
established transportation network. Instead, businesses
often elect to locate in undeveloped parts of the county,
which has exacerbated urban decay and suburban sprawl.

Pilot Snapshot

Date of Announcement: 04/01/1997
Amount: $200,000

Profile: The pilot will focus on more than three
square miles of vacant or under-used industrial
property within the Buck's County Enterprise Zone.

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 3 Brownfields Team
(215)814-3129

EPA Region 3 Brownfields Web site
(http ://www .epa.gov/reg3hwmd/bf-lr)

Grant Recipient: County of Bucks,PA
(215) 781-8711

Objectives

The objective of this brownfields pilot is to initiate a
comprehensive assessment of potentially contaminated
industrial and commercial properties that would be
appropriate for private sector investment. The pilot will
focus on brownfields within three Enterprise Zone
communities-Bristol Township, Bristol Borough, and
Morrisville Borough.

Activities

Activities planned as part of this pilot include:

Phase 1: Coordination with Enterprise Zone Plan

•	Forming a Brownfields Task Group;

•	Establishing goals for designated brownfields
communities, and identifying the unique cultural,
social, historical, and environmental aspects of
the communities;

•	Ensuring community participation and outreach;

Phase 2: Site Inventory (and Ranking)

United States
Environmental
Protection Agency
Washington, DC 20450

Solid Waste
and Emergency
Response (5105T)

EPA 500-F-97-125
Apr 97


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•	Reviewing available databases and surveys to
identify brownfields sites, and creating an
inventory of brownfields sites;

•	Creating a matrix of ranking criteria, and
prioritizing sites for environmental assessment;

Phase 3: Environmental Site Assessment

•	Preparing site assessment work plans for sites,
and conducting site assessments;

•	Preparing site assessment reports;

•	Evaluating appropriate flow of ownership
models for site redevelopment and reuse; and

Presenting recommendations to community leaders.

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-97-125
Apr 97


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w5

Brownfields 1997 Supplemental Assessment
Pilot Fact Sheet

Bucks County, PA

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 awarded Bucks County supplemental assistance for
its Brownfields Assessment Demonstration Pilot. Since
the mid-twentieth century, the economic vitality of Bucks
County has centered around a manufacturing industrial
base located along the Delaware River. The county has
been the site for much industry, mainly because of its
major transportation routes, which include the Delaware
River, Delaware Canal, Neshaminy Creek, Interstate-95,
Route 202, and Route 611. Despite accessibility to an
established transportation network and a large,
high-quality workforce, businesses tend to avoid
brownfields and their suspected contamination and,
instead, elect to locate in undeveloped parts of the
county, which has exacerbated urban decay and suburban
sprawl. Furthermore, as a result of the economic
downturn in 2001 and the additional slowdown resulting
from the September 11th tragedy, numerous businesses in
Bucks County have closed, leaving hundreds of acres of
industrial land idle and resulting in the loss of nearly
1,000 jobs.

The origianl Asessment Pilot grant focused on three
municipalities and later expanded to cover all six
municipalities comprising the Enterprise Zone (EZ)
located in the lower portion of the county. Supplemental
assistance allowed the Redevelopment Authority to

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Pilot Snapshot

Date of Announcement: 05/01/2002
Amount: $150,000

Profile: Bucks County, PA. The Pilot will identify
and rank new and existing brownfields sites in Bucks
County and target priority brownfields sites for
acquisition, assessment, cleanup, and/or
redevelopment.

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 3 Brownfields Team
(215)814-3129

EPA Region 3 Brownfields Web site
(http ://www .epa.gov/reg3hwmd/bf-lr)

Grant Recipient: County of Bucks,PA
(215) 781-8711

Objectives

With this supplemental assistance, the county's
Redevelopment Authority intends to update and
consolidate the brownfields inventories that were
previously completed using the original funding under
the Assessment Pilot. The authority will subsequently
assess, acquire, and ultimately clean up those
brownfields that the community and the county have
identified as being most important to the revitalization
of the area. Bucks County plans to establish a system
whereby the authority, as the county-designated
brownfields coordinator, would be advised of any
potential brownfields as soon as they become a
brownfield by definition.

Activities

Activities planned as part of this Pilot include:
• Establishing a process through which

United States
Environmental
Protection Agency
Washington, DC 20450

Solid Waste
and Emergency
Response (5105T)

EPA 500-F-02-116
May 02


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county and to conduct environmental assessments at
targeted sites. Additional supplemental funds will allow
Bucks County to expand their brownfields inventory to
include additional abandoned or underused sites.

municipalities will notify the Redevelopment
Authority of potential brownfields soon after
they become vacant or underused;

•	Conducting record searches on recently
identified brownfields;

•	Conducting field inspections to determine the
eligibility of identified sites for inclusion in the
brownfields program;

•	Presenting the target sites to a panel for review
and rating based on established criteria;

•	Contacting the property owners and
municipalities about proceeding with the
acquisition, assessment, and cleanup of the sites;
and

•	Assessing high priority sites.

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	c

Environmental	anri Fmpflpn™	EPA 500-F-02-116

j. j.- a	ancl Emergency	.. __

Protection Agency	Response (5105T)	MaV02

Washington, DC 20450	^ v '


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w5

Brownfields 1997 Supplemental Assessment
Pilot Fact Sheet

Bucks County, PA

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 awarded the Bucks County supplemental assistance
for its Brownfields Assessment Demonstration Pilot.
Since the mid-twentieth century, the economic vitality of
Bucks County has centered around a manufacturing
industrial base located along the Delaware River. Bucks
County has been the site for much industry, mainly
because of its major transportation routes, including the
Delaware River, Delaware Canal, Neshaminy Creek,
Interstate-95, Route 202, and Route 611. Despite
accessibility to an established transportation network and
a large, high-quality workforce, businesses tend to avoid
brownfields and their suspected contamination and,
instead, elect to locate in undeveloped parts of the
county, which has exacerbated urban decay and suburban
sprawl.

Originally, the Pilot focused on three municipalities and
later expanded to cover all six municipalities comprising
the Enterprise Zone (EZ) located in the lower portion of
the county. While the concentration of industrial sites is
greatest in the EZ municipalities, it is estimated that all
municipalities within Bucks County have at least one
industrial property. Many of these industrial businesses
are now either defunct or operating at diminished
capacity. It is estimated that there are more than three
square miles of vacant industrial facilities, underused
buildinas. and abandoned nronerties in the countv.

Pilot Snapshot

Date of Announcement: 03/01/2000
Amount: $150,000

Profile: Bucks County, PA. The Pilot will identify
and rank brownfields sites in Bucks County and
target priority brownfields sites for acquisition,
assessment, cleanup, and/or redevelopment.

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 3 Brownfields Team
(215)814-3129

EPA Region 3 Brownfields Web site
(http ://www .epa.gov/reg3hwmd/bf-lr)

Grant Recipient: County of Bucks,PA
(215) 781-8711

Objectives

The Pilot, lead by the Redevelopment Authority of the
Bucks County, will use the supplemental assistance to
expand its efforts to identify and rank brownfields
throughout the remaining 48 municipalities of Bucks
County. To do this, the Pilot plans to focus on 6 to 10
(depending on the size) municipalities at one time. The
Pilot will then target priority brownfields sites for
acquisition, assessment, cleanup, and/or redevelopment.

To accomplish these objectives, the Pilot plans to:

•	Identify and locate, using tax map parcel
numbers and street maps, all vacant properties
zoned for industrial or commercial usage;

•	Meet with community officials in charge of each
municipality to identify which vacant or
underutilized properties are possible brownfields
sites;

•	Conduct initial field investigations to identify
eligible brownfields sites;

United States
Environmental
Protection Agency
Washington, DC 20450

Solid Waste
and Emergency
Response (5105T)

EPA 500-F-00-003
Apr 00


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•	Rate the remaining properties to establish a list of
priority brownfields sites;

•	Contact the corresponding property owners and
municipalities about proceeding with the
acquisition, assessment, and cleanup of the sites;
and

•	Assess properties.

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-00-003
Apr 00


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