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Brownfields
2000 Assessment
Pilot
Fact Sheet
Riverdale, South Chicago Heights, Chicago Heights, and Dolton/Lansing, IL
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: May 2000
Amount: $200,000
Profile: The Riverdale Pilot will target brownfields sites in the south suburban Chicago region for assessment and cleanup.
Background
EPA has selected the Village of Riverdale for a Brownfields Pilot. Riverdale is partnering with the South Suburban Chicago Brownfields Coalition (SSCBC), which consists of cooperative partners including the Village of South Chicago Heights, City of Chicago Heights, Village of Dolton, the Village of Lansing, and the South Suburban Mayors and Managers Association, a consortium of mayors and city managers from 38 municipalities in the south suburban Chicago. These communities are located in one of the nation's key industrial strongholds. The drastic loss of industry in this region, peaking in the 1970s and early 1980s, has created pockets of economically distressed communities and thousands of acres of brownfields properties. In some communities of the south suburbs the unemployment rate is as high as 20 percent, while the percentage of minority populations reaches more than 99 percent. One municipality represented by the consortium, the Ford Heights community, qualifies as America's poorest suburb, with a poverty rate of 49 percent. Although the number of industries, as well as residents, has decreased, the region is poised for redevelopment and economic renewal with its excellent freight transportation infrastructure and remaining industrial clusters.
Objectives
The Pilot's primary objectives are to create an inventory of area brownfields properties, prioritize and target properties for assessment and cleanup; perform environmental assessments at targeted sites, establish a web site to inform communities and other interested parties of brownfields sites, and conduct community outreach and solicit community involvement. The award of EPA funding will leverage additional city, state, and federal funds for brownfields assessment, cleanup, and redevelopment activities.
These Pilot activities will also contribute to SSCBC's long-term goals, which include building a regional partnership around brownfields redevelopment among south suburban municipalities to achieve collective results, using the south suburban region's existing assets as building blocks for brownfields revitalization and economic renewal, and producing a model for brownfields identification, assessment, cleanup and redevelopment that provides a framework for future projects.
Activities
Activities planned as part of this Pilot include:
- Compiling a comprehensive inventory, including geographic information system (GIS) mapping and site profiles, of south suburban brownfields properties;
- Prioritizing and targeting brownfields properties for assessment and cleanup;
- Conducting Phase I and Phase II environmental assessments at targeted brownfields properties; and
- Involving community representatives, especially those in environmental justice communities, in decision-making processes regarding brownfields assessment and 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 5 Brownfields Team
(312) 886-7576
EPA Region 5 Brownfields Web site
(http://www.epa.gov/R5Brownfields)
Grant Recipient: South Suburban Mayors & Managers Association, IL
(708) 841-2200
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.