Brownfields Update for the Pacific Northwest

Communities across Region 10 to share in the stimulus pot

EPA’s Region 10 will receive more than $2.4 million in additional grant dollars for brownfield assessment and cleanup projects throughout Washington, Oregon and Idaho.

Earlier this month, EPA announced the awarding of $111.9 million in grants bolstered by funds from the America Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (http://www.epa.gov/brownfields/eparecovery/index.htm). Communities in 46 states, four tribes and two U.S. territories will share in these grants to help revitalize former industrial and commercial sites. The grants include $37.3 million from the Recovery Act and $74.6 million from the EPA brownfields general program funding. In all, 252 applicants were selected to receive 389 grants.

“The opportunity for additional funds for brownfield projects through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act will reach sites previously impacted by industrial legacies unique to the Pacific Northwest, including mining, naval-dependent businesses and former industrial corridors in what are considered under-served urban communities in Tacoma and Seattle,” says Susan Morales, EPA Region 10 brownfields coordinator. “These funds will serve as a resource for community revitalization at a time of unprecedented economic challenges.”

In Washington, communities will receive about $1.4 million in grants. In Idaho, communities in Bonner and Custer counties will receive $850,000 in grants. And in Oregon, the Portland Development Commission will receive $200,000. These grant dollars will go to:

• The city of Bremerton, Wash. A $200,000 hazardous substance cleanup grant will be used to clean up the Robinson property, a quarter-acre site that has been home to a restaurant, garage and stove shop, and is contaminated with mercury, metals and carcinogenic polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs).
• The South East Effective Development in Seattle. A $200,000 hazardous substance cleanup grant will be used to clean up Rainier Court Phase III. The one-acre site, once an illegal dump, warehouse and parking area, is contaminated with carcinogenic PAHs and metals.
• The Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department. A $200,000 petroleum assessment grant will be used to conduct five to 10 Phase I and II environmental site assessments and develop cleanup plans for former gas stations.
• The city of Bothell, Wash. A $200,000 hazardous substance cleanup grant will be used to clean up the Bothell Landing Commercial Center site. The site housed two service stations between the 1930s and the 1970s, and is contaminated with petroleum hydrocarbons and chlorinated volatile organic compounds. Grant funds also will be used for groundwater cleanup.
• The city of Marysville, Wash. A $200,000 hazardous substance cleanup grant will be used to clean up the Crown Pacific/Interfor Pacific site. The 10.1-acre property has been used as a sawmill, log yard and boat manufacturing facility. It’s contaminated with PAHs, methylene chloride and waste motor oil.
• The Port Gamble S’Klallam Tribe in Washington. A $200,000 hazardous substances assessment will be used to perform Phase I and Phase II environmental site assessments, community involvement activities and possibly a human health risk assessment. A $200,000 petroleum grant will be used to perform the same tasks at sites with potential petroleum contamination.
• The Portland Development Commission. A $200,000 hazardous substance cleanup grant will clean up the Gateway Neighborhood Park in east Portland, a 4.2-acre site that was formerly a dry cleaner and a bowling alley and is contaminated with perchloroethene and trichloroethene.
• The Idaho Department of Environmental Quality. Community-wide grant funds ($480,000 hazardous substance assessment and $170,000 petroleum assessment) will be used to perform Phase I and II environmental site assessments for hazardous contamination and to conduct soil, groundwater and surface water sampling, all aimed at supporting redevelopment along a two-mile stretch of Lake Pend Oreille shoreline. Lake Pend Oreille is one of the largest inland lakes in North America.
• The Idaho Department of Parks and Recreation. A $200,000 cleanup grant will be used to clean up the Skylark Mine in the historic Bayhorse Mining District of Custer County. The 34.4-acre site was formerly used for mining and smelting and is contaminated with arsenic and metals from mining in the late 1800s and early 1900s.

More information on the Region 10 recipients and their projects is at http://yosemite.epa.gov/R10/CLEANUP.NSF/sites/bf.