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EPA Awards $200,000 To Yonkers, New York For National Brownfields Pilot Project

Release Date: 05/06/1998
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(#98049) Yonkers, N.Y. -- The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) today awarded $200,000 to Yonkers, New York to begin a Brownfields Assessment Demonstration Pilot. The city will use the money to identify and assess contaminated waterfront sites that the city plans to clean up and redevelop. This award is part of a national program administrated by EPA. The goal of EPA's national Brownfield Economic Redevelopment Initiative is to renew industrial and commercial facilities where expansion or redevelopment is complicated by real or perceived environmental contamination.

"The Brownfields program represents an opportunity to return dormant lands to productivity," said Jeanne M. Fox, EPA Region 2 Administrator. "The goal is to make these sites clean, job-creating, profit-producing assets once more. By re-using brownfields, we can help preserve our green fields -- open areas that have not been used for development."

Once a river port, the Yonkers Municipal Pier has not been used since the 1950's. The once-productive Alexander Street Waterfront is now an industrial wasteland. Yonkers wants to create jobs, and the city has virtually no land for industrial or commercial expansion. Yonkers will conduct environmental assessments along the Alexander Street Waterfront, which is comprised of a 22-acre cluster of 11 mostly vacant industrial properties. The city will also create a "one stop shop" for the public to get information on brownfields and will actively involve the community in the brownfelds redevelopment process.

To date, EPA has granted 121 pilots , allowing communities to begin the process of redeveloping brownfields. This year alone, EPA will expand the program nationally by 100 new Brownfields Assessment Demonstration Pilots. Several hundred municipalities applied for Brownfields grants in 1996 and 1997. There are ten cities or counties in New York that have been awarded brownfield grants. Yonkers is the most recent addition to the list in New York State, along with Niagara County and Ogdensburg. In past years, Niagara Falls, Buffalo, New York City, Rome, Rochester, Elmira, and Glen Cove have also received brownfields grants.

For more information contact:
Richard Cahill, Press Office
EPA Region 2
290 Broadway
NY, NY 10007-1866
Voice: 212-637-3666 FAX: 212-637-5046 E-Mail: [email protected]