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Brownfields
1997 Assessment
Pilot
Fact Sheet
Ketchikan Gateway Borough, AK
EPA Brownfields Initiative
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.
Pilot Snapshot
Date of Announcement: Apr 1997
Amount: $200,000
Profile: The Ward Cove Paper Mill site will be the focus of the brownfields pilot.
Background
EPA has selected Ketchikan Gateway Borough as a Brownfields Pilot. Ketchikan is a community of about 15,000 residents located on Revillagigedo Island in the southernmost portion of Alaska's "panhandle." The site selected for the pilot is the Ward Cove Pulp Mill. The mill was established in 1954 as part of the U.S. Forest Service's decision to develop a forest products industry in southeast Alaska. Previously, the Ketchikan economy was almost entirely dependent on fisheries, tourism, and mining-industries that tend to be highly seasonal and cyclical. At one time, the mill employed up to seven percent of Ketchikan's workforce and offered stable, year-round employment. The current corporate owner of the mill permanently closed it in March 1997.
Ketchikan hopes that this brownfields pilot will be a model for brownfields prevention and remediation. By planning for immediate reuse of the site, the community hopes to avoid the deterioration of buildings, facilities, and equipment. The community is also trying to avoid costs associated with rebuilding infrastructure. Ketchikan also hopes to preserve the scenic beauty and natural resources of the area by directing industrial development to previously developed sites.
Objectives
Ketchikan's goals for the pilot are: 1) to help maintain a sustainable industrial employment base; 2) to avoid an economy dependent on cyclical and seasonal employment and the problems associated with a transient labor force; and 3) to retain the Ward Cove Pulp Mill workforce in the Ketchikan Gateway Borough community. The brownfield pilot for the Ward Cove Paper Mill site will serve as a model for community planning and redevelopment.
Activities
Activities planned as part of this pilot include:
- Performing a site survey to inventory the parts of the site can be reused immediately and the parts that should be excluded from immediate reuse consideration;
- Conducting site assessment activities;
- Performing an economic analysis of the property to identify potential industries that may appropriately reuse the site; and
- Planning for site cleanup.
The cooperative agreement for this Pilot has not yet been negotiated; therefore, activities described in this fact sheet are subject to change.
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 10 Brownfields Team
(206) 553-7299
EPA Region 10 Brownfields Web site
(http://yosemite.epa.gov/R10/CLEANUP.NSF/sites/bf)
Grant Recipient: Ketchikan Gateway Borough, OR
(907) 228-6610
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.