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Brownfields 2005 Assessment Grant Fact Sheet

Charleston, WV

EPA Brownfields Program

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.

Community Description

The City of Charleston was selected to receive a
brownfields assessment grant. Charleston (population
53,421), the capital of West Virginia, is located at the
confluence of the Elk and Kanawha Rivers. It is the most
populous city in the Kanawha Valley, a region with a rich
history of chemical, gas, and coal production and
excellent transportation access facilitated by the navigable
waterways and three major interstate systems. The decline
in these industries has left the city with a proliferation of
abandoned and underutilized properties, and resulted in a
nearly 40 percent decline in population over the past 40
years. While the poverty and unemployment rates
city-wide are average, these rates go up to 67 and 18
percent, respectively, in the primarily African-American
pocket communities that are disproportionately impacted
by brownfields. Median household income in these
communities is 22 percent of the Charleston area-wide
median. Assessment and eventual cleanup of the
brownfields sites will help the city in its goal of reducing
public health hazards, including the high incidence of
cancer, that are suspected to be related to the years of
industrial environmental contamination. Redevelopment is
also expected to increase the local tax base and rid the city
of unsightly areas.

Assessment Grant

$200,000 for petroleum

EPA has selected the City of Charleston for a
brownfields assessment grant. Grant funds will be
used to conduct community outreach, inventory
and rank sites, perform an estimated 12 Phase I
and six Phase II environmental site assessments,
and develop remedial, reuse, and greenspace plans
for sites with potential petroleum contamination
around the city.

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: City of Charleston, West Virginia
(304) 348-8035 ext 220

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

Solid Waste
and Emergency
Response (5105T)

EPA 560-F-05-179
May 2005

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