w5 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 ------- • 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 ------- 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 +h*=*ir ln^^pntnn/ trv inrOnH*^ q11 hrriwnfif^lrlc in 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 ------- 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 ' ------- 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 ------- • 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 ------- |