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BROWNFIELDS NATIONAL PARTNERSHIP EXPANDED
Release Date: 12/06/99
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FOR RELEASE: MONDAY, DEC. 6, 1999
BROWNFIELDS NATIONAL PARTNERSHIP EXPANDED
Building on the success of reclaiming once-contaminated local sites for job-producing development, the Clinton-Gore Administration announced today its Brownfields Showcase Communities initiative will be expanded to include 10 additional cities.
“Revitalizing brownfields helps America’s cities rebuild their communities on a new foundation of hope,” Vice President Al Gore said. “This Administration has taken action to help cities and communities clean up brownfields and enable them to serve as sources of economic vitality, jobs and community pride.”
The Showcase Communities are the centerpiece of the Administration’s Brownfields National Partnership and are eligible to receive Administration-wide assistance and coordinated technical support for environmental cleanup and economic revitalization. The Showcase Communities serve as models for future cooperative efforts in cleaning up and revitalizing brownfields, creating jobs and stimulating local economies.
For example, Dallas, Texas, is a Showcase Community that has shown tremendous success. In just over two years the Dallas Brownfields Program leveraged more than $109 million in private investment and $1.9 million in federal funds to facilitate brownfields redevelopment with support from EPA, the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and the Economic Development Administration (EDA). The program has helped reclaim more than 1,200 acres of brownfields and anticipates the creation of more than 1,700 jobs.
In addition, the City of Glen Cove, N.Y. – another Showcase Community – plans to redevelop 146 acres of underused, often contaminated brownfields along the city’s waterfront district. Attracting new businesses to these restored sites is expected to create 1,700 full-time jobs and more than $200 million in annual sales with support from EPA, HUD, EDA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
These are just two examples of the types of successful brownfields redevelopment occurring across the country. The “Brownfields National Partnership Action Agenda Accomplishments Report” released today provides a list of actions and commitments made by governmental and non-governmental partners. While the Accomplishments Report presents a snapshot of the successes of the Partnership effort, it continues to be dynamic and growing. This accomplishments report documents that more than 93 percent of the action agenda commitments are completed or in progress. In addition, more than $1.6 billion in public and private investment has been leveraged in communities with brownfields throughout the nation.
For the last two years the partners have worked independently and collectively to implement their specific brownfields commitments that ranged from leveraged funds and volunteer hours to workshops, conferences and publications.
In terms of funding, EPA more than doubled its total expenditures to address brownfields between 1997 and 1998 to more than $126 million. The General Services Administration obligated $1 million to fund environmental assessment on federal properties. In 1998 HUD provided $25 million in Brownfields Economic Development Initiative Funds and $141 million in loan guarantees for brownfields redevelopment. NOAA increased its brownfields funding by more than 100 percent between 1997 and 1998 to more than $1.7 million to address redevelopment issues in prime coastal-area brownfields sites. EDA estimated it spent more than $114.2 million for redevelopment of brownfields.
The Partnership represents a new national model for government reinvention and for public-private partnerships. The accomplishments of the Partnership illustrate that coordinating resources and expertise of federal agencies and non-governmental organizations with local and state efforts can expedite the cleanup of more brownfields and spur more sustainable economic reuse. By continuing to coordinate efforts and resources the Partnership will turn more environmental challenges into economic and social assets in communities across the country.
For a copy for the Brownfields National Partnership Action Agenda Accomplishments Report and additional information about the brownfields initiative, visit EPA’s web page at https://www.epa.gov/brownfields.
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