10 Communities Awarded Superfund Redevelopment Initiative Grants

["cpeo@cpeo.org" <cpeo@cpeo.org>]

FOR RELEASE:  FRIDAY, JULY 23, 1999          
           
EPA ADMINISTRATOR BROWNER ANNOUNCES NEW INITIATIVE TO RESTORE SUPERFUND
SITES TO PRODUCTIVE USE
                     
                     
    Speaking today with community and business leaders at a Superfund site
in Front Royal,  Va., EPA Administrator Carol M. Browner announced that
nearly $1 million in grants will be awarded to 10 communities across the
country under the EPA's Superfund Redevelopment Initiative -- a new pilot
program to help communities restore toxic waste sites to productive use.
By the end of 2000, nearly $5 million in grants will be awarded to 50
communities throughout the country. 
                     
    "This pilot program is another example of how we can both grow our
economy and protect our environment,"Vice President Gore said.  "This
initiative will help protect the health of our people, speed the cleanup of
toxic waste sites, and allow us to reinvest in our communities."
                     
    "Through this initiative, we will create jobs and encourage economic
redevelopment in communities that are saddled with old abandoned hazardous
waste sites," said Browner.  "We will work cooperatively with local
governments and businesses to clean up old toxic waste sites and transform
them into new parks, neighborhoods or thriving commercial districts."
                     
    The sites announced today to receive the grants include: Pownal
Tannery, Pownal, Vt.; Roebling Steel, Roebling, N.J.; Avtex Fibers, Front
Royal, Va.; Escambia Treating Company, Pensacola, Fla.; Tar Lake,
Mancelona, Mich.; Many Diversified Interests, Houston, Texas; National Mine
Tailings, Park Hills, Mo.; Midvale Slag, Midvale, Utah; Frontier
Fertilizer, Davis, Calif.; and McCormick and Baxter Creosoting Company,
Portland, Ore.    
                     
     Each community will receive up to $100,000 in the form of a
cooperative agreement with the local government to conduct reuse
assessments and public outreach to help determine the likely future use of
the site.  The national focus on redeveloping Superfund sites builds on the
success the Administration has achieved in its Brownfields Economic
Redevelopment Initiative and relies on many of the tools that have been
developed over the last six years under the Superfund Administrative
Reforms.  
                     
    Under the Brownfield's program EPA has awarded over 300  brownfields
grants, for over $69 million, to states, cities, towns, and tribes,
building on the Administration's record of ensuring a clean, safe
environment and a strong economy.  These grants have leveraged nearly $1
billion for redevelopment and created over 2,000 jobs.  The Brownfield's
program is designed to empower states, local government and communities to
develop public/private partnerships that restore abandoned sites to new
uses, thereby increasing property values, stimulating tax revenues and
revitalizing communities. 
                     
    In addition to the 50 pilot projects, this Superfund Redevelopment
Initiative will also include Superfund policy and guidance changes,
partnerships with federal agencies and other organizations, and the
exchange of information on how the redevelopment of Superfund sites has
occurred in the past.
                     
    By working in partnership with states, tribes, other federal agencies,
local government, communities, land owners, lenders, developers and
responsible parties, EPA will determine critical factors that lead to the
successful reuse of Superfund sites and will serve as a conduit for
information exchange with other communities across the country.  With these
pilot grants, EPA will evaluate policies and make necessary changes to
promote reuse of these sites.  EPA also will create a searchable database
that will serve as a clearinghouse of sites that are available for reuse.
                     
     For more information about the Superfund Redevelopment Initiative
visit EPA's web page at:
http://www.epa.gov/superfund/programs/recycle/index.htm or call the
Superfund hotline at 1-800-424-9346 or 703-412-9810.