Brownfields National Partnership expanded to include 10 more cities

The cities will be selected on a competitive basis. The EPA will issue a solicitation notice in the Federal Register in the near future to request applications and will announce the new cities some time in 2000, an EPA spokesperson told edie.

The Showcase Communities are the centrepiece of the Brownfields National Partnership. The Showcase Communities serve as models for future brownfield clean-up projects.

For example, in two years the Dallas Brownfields Program raised more than $109 million in private investment and $1.9 million in federal funds for brownfields redevelopment with support from the US EPA, the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and the Economic Development Administration (EDA). The programme has helped reclaim more than 486ha of brownfields and is expected to create more than 1,700 jobs.

In addition, the City of Glen Cove, NY plans to redevelop 59ha of brownfields along the city’s waterfront district. New businesses are expected to create 1,700 full-time jobs and more than $200 million in annual sales.

The Brownfields National Partnership Action Agenda Accomplishments Report provides a list of actions and commitments made by governmental and non-governmental partners. The report shows 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 raised in communities with brownfields throughout the US.

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 reserved $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. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (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 between 1997 and 1998.