EPA’s Brownfields Program empowers states, communities, and other
stakeholders to work together to prevent, assess, safely cleanup, and
sustainably reuse brownfields. Revitalizing brownfield sites creates
benefits at the site and throughout the community.
Leveraging Money for Assessment, Cleanup and Revitalization of Brownfields
Based
on data from grantee reporting and through the Program’s ACRES
database, through fiscal year 2011, on average, $18.01 is leveraged for
each EPA Brownfields dollar expended at a brownfield from Assessment,
Cleanup, and Revolving Loan Fund cooperative agreements since Program
inception.
Leveraging Jobs from EPA Brownfields Dollars Spent to Assess, Clean and Revitalize Brownfields
Based
on data through fiscal year 2011, on average, 7.43 jobs are leveraged
per $100,000 of EPA Brownfields funding expended on Assessment, Cleanup
and Revolving Loan Fund cooperative agreements since program inception.
As of April 2012, 75,590 jobs have been leveraged through the
Brownfields Program including the State and Tribal 128(a) program since
its inception.
Environmental (Air and Water) Benefits of Brownfields Redevelopment
The
EPA Brownfields Program has conducted five pilot studies, which
concluded that redeveloped brownfield sites tend to have greater
location efficiency than alternative development scenarios at greenfield
sites, resulting in a 32 to 57 percent reduction in vehicle miles
traveled associated with these sites and a reduction in air pollution
emissions, including greenhouse gases. These same site comparisons show
an estimated 47 to 62 percent reduction in stormwater runoff. The
studies suggest a range of impacts due to regional variation in
development and travel patterns.
Additional Benefits of Brownfields Redevelopment
The EPA
Brownfields Program has funded a study to assess the impact, or economic
benefit, of brownfields grants on residential property values. The
study concluded that residential property values increased between 2 and
3 percent once a nearby brownfield was assessed or cleaned up. The
study further concluded that cleaning up a brownfield can increase
overall property values within a one mile radius by $0.5 to $1.5
million. Additionally, initial anecdotal surveys indicate a reduction in
crime in recently revitalized brownfield areas.
Opportunity to Expand Assessment Program and Leverage from Benefits of Agency’s Removal Program
As
is apparent from the numbers, there is a huge demand for site
assessment work. The Program can expand upon recent policy
clarifications to use site assessment dollars for environmental site
assessments in conjunction with efforts to promote area-wide planning
among areas and corridors of brownfield sites. The use of funds for
these purposes is particularly important for economically distressed
areas to enable the identification of infrastructure capacity along with
potential end uses. Also, in certain instances when environmental site
assessments reveal immediate threats to the environment or human health,
a more programmatic use of EPA Removal funds to address these threats
could be implemented.
