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U.S EPA WILL FUND SACRAMENTO BROWNFIELDS PILOT PROJECT

Release Date: 7/26/1995
Contact Information: Paula Bruin, U.S. EPA, (415) 744-1587

(San Francisco)--The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
(U.S. EPA) today announced it has selected Sacramento as one of
15 cities nationwide to participate in a pilot redevelopment
project at industrial sites, known as brownfields.  Sacramento
will receive a $200,000 cooperative agreement over a two-year
period for involving the community in deciding the appropriate
cleanup levels and future uses of these contaminated properties
and encouraging private and other public monies to redevelop
them.

     "I am pleased to announce this new partnership with the city
of Sacramento to encourage the cleanup of contaminated industrial
land and its return to productive community use," said Felicia
Marcus, U.S. EPA's Regional Administrator.  "I firmly believe
that environmental cleanup can bring life and strength to a
community through jobs, an enhanced tax base, and vision for the
community's future.  I commend Sacramento for their leadership
and look forward to our partnership."

     The $200,000 will be used to determine effective ways of
working with community members to ensure that cleanup is based
upon community-supported land uses; to resolve liability
concerns; to work with developers and lenders to identify
impediments to redevelopment and identify solutions; to create a
streamlined land re-use permitting process; and to serve as role
model for other communities seeking effective methods for
achieving economic redevelopment.

     "I believe participating in the pilot project will not only
help Sacramento, but will help other cities find a way to improve
their economic health and environment," said Mayor Joe Serna Jr.
"We look forward to working with U.S. EPA and the community in
developing a system that will serve as a model to help redevelop
urban sites across the country."

     Under this pilot, communities and developers will work
together to restore abandoned sites and thereby create new jobs
and economic growth, increase property values, stimulate tax
revenues and rejuvenate neighborhoods.  All the national pilots
will feature cooperative efforts between diverse community
groups, investors, lenders, developers, regulators and other
interested parties.
                     
     "We appreciate the work of Felicia Marcus and others at U.S.
EPA in helping the state of California and the city of Sacramento
restore our urban sites," said California Secretary for
Environmental Protection James M. Strock.  "We hope that our
innovative, voluntary cleanup program will set a national example
for cleanup and real-time environmental improvement."

     Sacramento and the other 14 cities were chosen from over one
hundred applications and join pilots already established in
Cleveland, Ohio, Bridgeport, Conn., and Richmond, Va.  The Agency
plans to fund 50 pilot projects nationally which will provide
U.S. EPA with demonstrations of ways to return unproductive
contaminated industrial sites to productive use.

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