[CPEO-BIF] EPA awards Revolving Loan Funds

[CPEO Moderator <cpeo@cpeo.org>]

[From US EPA Brownfields Listserve
]

New US EPA Brownfields Cleanup Revolving Loan Fund Pilots Announced for:
Clairton, PA; Dearborn, MI; Duquesne, PA; Lehigh County, PA; Luzerne
County, PA; McKeesport, PA; Trenton, MI

Fact sheets for the seven announced pilots are available at:
www.epa.gov/brownfields/pilot.htm#previous

The following two EPA press releases describe the
awards. July 17, 2000

EPA Awards $2.5 Million to Rebuild Blighted Pennsylvania Communities

     PHILADELPHIA   U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Regional
Administrator Bradley M. Campbell announced that grants totaling $2.5
million have been awarded today to five Pennsylvania communities
participating in the EPA's Brownfields Economic Redevelopment Initiative.

     The cities of Clairton, Duquesne, and McKeesport in western
Pennsylvania and Luzerne and Lehigh Counties in the east will each be
funded $500,000 to capitalize Brownfields Cleanup Revolving Loan Funds
pilots.  The monies will enable the recipients to provide loans to public
and private parties for the cleanup of brownfields properties.  The
five grants are among a group of seven awarded nationwide by the EPA today.

     A brownfield site is an abandoned, idled, or under-used industrial or
commercial facility where expansion or redevelopment is complicated by real
or perceived environmental contamination.  EPA designed the Brownfield
Economic Redevelopment Initiative to empower states, communities, and other
redevelopment stakeholders to work together to assess, cleanup, and reuse
brownfield sites for the economic benefit of the local community.
Establishing revolving loan funds which offer low-interest loans to
businesses is intended to leverage cleanup and

redevelopment resources.

     "These revolving loan funds expand the Clinton Administration's
efforts to transform toxic sites across the country into clean, healthy
engines of local prosperity. Communities will be able to help EPA remove
toxic threats, while achieving the community's vision for reuse of the
site," said Campbell.

      The cities of Clairton, Duquesne, and McKeesport are located in the
Monongahela River Valley of Allegheny County, near Pittsburgh.  The region
was once the center of the United States steelmaking industry.  However,
the steel industry lost 75,000 jobs in the Pittsburgh region causing
population losses and large numbers of abandoned properties.  Today,
poverty rates in some old mill towns exceed 25 percent and unemployment
reaches nearly 15 percent, in some cases. As much as one-third of the
population in these communities is comprised of minorities.

     Luzerne County is located in Northeastern Pennsylvania, in the heart
of the eastern "coal field" region. The decline of the coal industry, as
well as declines in the textile and steel industries, have left a legacy of
blighted communities and potentially contaminated land throughout Luzerne
County. The county's inventory of abandoned and underused commercial
properties includes approximately 62 square miles of abandoned minelands.
Reuse of  the minelands is vital to the achievement of the county's land
use objectives. Approximately 12 percent of the population lives below the
poverty level. Seven percent are unemployed.

     Lehigh County is located in the Lehigh Valley in Eastern Pennsylvania.
 Agriculture, mining, iron and steel production, textile manufacturing, and
slate and cement industry activities have all played a role in the local
economy. Economic cycles and industry downturns over the years have
resulted in massive layoffs and site abandonment.
Currently, the county-wide poverty rate averages seven percent, but it
ranges as high as fifteen percent in some areas.

     All of the Pennsylvania grant recipients announced today will
contribute in-kind services to maximize loan values.  In addition, many of
the targeted brownfields sites are in state-designated Keystone Opportunity
Zones and/or Enterprise Zones making them potentially eligible for tax
abatements on real estate; income; sales and use; and corporate use taxes.

     Other possible sources of funding for interested businesses and
developers include existing Brownfields Assessment Demonstration Pilot
grant funds, Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development
grant and loan programs, state-sponsored low-income loans
for remediation and/or reclamation, and private lending institutions.

     Successful use of the grants will provide a strong step toward the
economic rebuilding of the recipient communities. The monies will reduce or
eliminate blight, create job opportunities, increase local tax bases and
curtail urban sprawl.

                              #

For Immediate Release:  July 17, 2000

No. 00-OPA161

EPA AWARDS $500,000 BROWNFIELD REVOLVING LOAN FUND GRANTS TO DEARBORN,
TRENTON, MI

     U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) today awarded $500,000
Brownfields Revolving Loan Funds pilot grants to Dearborn and Trenton, MI.


     Both cities are part of the Downriver Area Brownfield Consortium
(DABC), a group of nine Detroit-area communities working together to
address brownfield issues in a coordinated manner.  In 1996 and 1997,
DABC's sponsoring organization, the Downriver Community Conference,
received $200,000 in grants under this program to assist the Downriver Area
communities in their brownfield redevelopment efforts.  The
grants awarded to Dearborn and Trenton today will help two of the
DABC communities move to the next step site cleanup and related
activities--in the redevelopment process.

     The two Michigan grants were among seven awarded by EPA today,
following a revision of eligibility criteria that previously excluded each
of these grantee communities because they were members of larger consortium
organizations.  The Dearborn and Trenton grants were the only ones awarded
to communities in EPA Region 5 states (IL, IN, MI, MN, OH, WI).

     Brownfield revolving loan fund grants enable states, counties,
municipalities, and Tribes to make low-interest funds available to
facilitate the cleanup and redevelopment of brownfield properties.  The
grant provides capital to establish a loan fund, which is then used to lend
money to communities, nonprofit organizations, and/or local
developers who are undertaking the cleanups.  Ultimately, the grant
program, part of EPA's national Brownfields Initiative, seeks to return
formerly underutilized or contaminated properties to productive reuse.

     Dearborn will use its grant to target a number of brownfield
properties in a once-vibrant industrial area in the Eastern portion of the
city.  The residents of Dearborn's most industrialized areas suffer from
unemployment rates one-and-a half to four times higher than the rest of
Dearborn. (Dearborn contact: Fred Weiss, assistant director,
Dearborn Department of Economic and Community Development,
313-943-2180.)

     Trenton will use its grant to target four privately owned industrial
properties along the Trenton Channel and the Detroit River.  Priority will
be given to those projects with completed environmental assessments,
specific development plans, active community support, and potential job
creation benefits.  (Trenton contact: Glenn Bowles, director, Trenton
Community Development, 734-675-8251.)

     In addition to the Dearborn and Trenton awards, $500,000 revolving
loan fund grants announced today were awarded to five communities in
Pennsylvania:  Clairton, Duquesne, McKeesport, Lehigh County, and Luzerne
County. Also today, EPA made additional supplemental revolving loan
fund awards to three communities that had previously received grants and
have now substantially depleted their available funds: Shreveport, LA
($500,000); Stamford, CT ($250,000); and Trenton, NJ ($500,000).

     Since 1997, EPA has awarded 105 Brownfield
Revolving Loan Fund pilot grants totaling $64.8 million.
For more information, see: www.epa.gov/brownfields.

                            ###

~

Fact sheets for the seven announced pilots are
available at: www.epa.gov/brownfields/pilot.htm#previous

For More Information on the Brownfields Cleanup
Revolving Loan Fund Pilots, visit:
http://www.epa.gov/brownfields/rlflst.htm

For general Information on the U.S. EPA's
Brownfields Program visit: http://www.epa.gov/brownfields/


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