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National Brownfields Redevelopment Conference in Atlantic City Draws on Mayoral Leadership in New York/New Jersey for Lessons in Success

Release Date: 09/27/2000
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(#00171) NEW YORK, N.Y. – If you could ask a mayor of any city what the No. 1 obstruction to redevelopment is, the most likely answer would be brownfields. That’s why the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is co-sponsoring, with the assistance of the Engineers’ Society of Western Pennsylvania, the largest and most comprehensive conference on brownfields redevelopment at the Atlantic City Convention Center in Atlantic City, New Jersey from October 11 through 13, 2000. Attendance is expected to exceed 3,000 at this fifth annual conference. Brownfields are abandoned or underused industrial or commercial sites where redevelopment and productive reuse are hampered by industrial pollution. EPA’s Brownfields Program brings together stakeholders from private, government and community groups to assess, cleanup and return these properties to productive roles in their neighborhoods. This free conference, with the theme Research and Regionalism: Revitalizing the American Community, will tap into national and international research efforts as well as successful regional strategies to revitalize neighborhoods with brownfields sites. EPA Regional Administrator Jeanne M. noted, "Mayors are often the front-line commanders, assessing the situation, marshaling efforts and obtaining resource to achieve successful brownfields redevelopment. Some in our region have winning records in turning community problems, like brownfield sites, into opportunities for positive change. By sharing their successes at the conference, these mayors will help conference attendees turn that knowledge into action in their own communities." Buffalo Mayor Anthony Masiello and Glen Cove Mayor Tom Suozzi of Long Island in New York, and Mayor James Whelan of Atlantic City, Mayor Doug Palmer of Trenton, Mayor Joseph Vas of Perth Amboy and Mayor J. Christian Bollwage of Elizabeth in New Jersey are speaking at the conference. A brochure on the conference and registration information is available online at: http://www.brownfields2000.org or call the Brownfield2000 Hotline at 1-877-343-5374.