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EPA Awards Buffalo and Niagara Falls $150,000 Each to Continue Assessments of Sites for Brownfields Redevelopment

Release Date: 04/12/2000
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(#00060) NEW YORK, N.Y. -- U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Regional Administrator Jeanne M. Fox announced today that the cities of Buffalo and Niagara Falls are two of 56 municipalities nationwide awarded $150,000 to supplement previous EPA funding for site assessments of potential brownfields projects. EPA supports communities across the country through its Brownfields Economic Redevelopment Initiative - a national effort to renew industrial and commercial properties where expansion or redevelopment is complicated by real or perceived environmental contamination. Both Buffalo and Niagara Falls have developed an extensive inventory of potential sites. Buffalo has already built a thriving minority business incubator and relocated a major ambulance company on a brownfields site, and has opened up prime redevelopment land that is linked by a major expressway to a major factory in the east side of the city. Buffalo hopes to redevelop a parcel of property known as Times Beach with the supplemental funding. Niagara Falls, using federal brownfields funds, developed the Highlands Avenue Redevelopment Plan, which was named the 1999 Outstanding Planning Project by the American Planning Association-Western New York Section. Niagara Falls intends to use the new funds for assessments on the Buffalo Avenue Corridor. "The cleanup and reuse of brownfields is helping the area's economic health, generating more jobs and returning dormant lands to productivity," said Jeanne M. Fox, EPA Region 2 Administrator. "The goal is to make these sites clean, job-creating, profit-producing assets once more. By re-using brownfields, we also help preserve our green fields -- open areas that have not been used for development." EPA continues to support Buffalo's and Niagara Falls' brownfields efforts because they are working, thanks to the commitment of Mayor Anthony Masiello and Mayor Irene Ellia," added Ms. Fox. Idle manufacturing sites are a major problem for the Niagara region. Many sites that were once used to produce steel, build aircraft and manufacture chemicals are now dormant. In Niagara County, there are more than 70 sites that contain hazardous substances, including 35 that appear on the federal Superfund cleanup list. Since 1995, EPA has funded 307 brownfields pilots nationwide, allowing communities to begin the process of redevelopment. There are 17 cities or counties in New York State, including Niagara Falls, Buffalo and Niagara County, to which EPA has awarded brownfield grants. Albany, Ogdensburg, Yonkers, New York City, Rome, Rochester, Schenectady, Glen Cove, Elmira, Johnstown, Watertown, Seneca Nation, Utica and Ulster County are municipalities in the state that are also participating in EPA's brownfields initiative.