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EPA Announces Redevelopment Jump-Start for Montco

Release Date: 6/21/1999
Contact Information: Ruth Podems, (215) 814-5540

NORRISTOWN, Pa. -- Montgomery County is one of 57 recipients nationwide which will receive a $200,000 grant today from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to clean up and redevelop brownfields -- abandoned industrial properties where redevelopment is complicated by real or perceived contamination.  

EPA Regional Administrator W. Michael McCabe announced the Montgomery County grant at a ceremony held today at a former asbestos manufacturing plant in Norristown, where he was joined by Representative Joseph Hoeffel III; Mario Mele, Chairman of the Montgomery County Commissioners; Norristown Mayor Ted LeBlanc; and Kathy Phifer, Executive Director of Montgomery Redevelopment Authority.

"Brownfields grants empower those groups interested in economic redevelopment to bring life and economic vitality back to a community.  The long-term benefits will include new jobs, an increased tax base, and a better partnership between public and private sectors and preservation of open space, or greenfields," said EPA Regional Administrator W. Michael McCabe.

Montgomery County, which received its grant through an application from the Redevelopment Authority, was chosen because the county has many abandoned, former industrial properties in older towns along Schuylkill River and along rail corridors. In the beginning of the 20th century, chemical, electrical machinery and metal working industries expanded in Montgomery County.  However, since World War II, many facilities have moved farther out to suburbs, leaving behind idle properties.

Montgomery County will focus its brownfields efforts in the older towns, using the grant money to:

• inventory brownfields sites and rank them by the extent of contamination, access to the site, scope of cleanup, and redevelopment potential and impact;

• do environmental assessments on targeted sites selected using the ranking system;

• prepare cleanup and redevelopment plans for the targeted sites;

• expand existing partnerships with communities;

• post database of inventoried sites on the internet in coordination with the Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development.

The brownfields grant complements Montgomery County’s Open Space Program which, in 1993, devoted $100 million to preserve unique and natural areas in the county.  By revitalizing older communities, there is less pressure to develop pristine greenfields.

Congress has recognized the relationship between protecting greenfields and redeveloping brownfields. Legislation will soon be introduced to offer "Better America Bonds," making it easier for state and local governments to offset the cost of purchasing open land in order to preserve it.  They could issue nearly $10 billion in bonds, pay no interest and take up to  15 years to pay back the principal.  Investors who buy the bonds receive tax credits from the federal government equal to the amount of interest.

"Sometimes, the best way for a community to ensure that it retains a certain amount of open space is to purchase that space, outright.  Better America Bonds will help make that possible for communities on tight budgets," said Representative Hoeffel, one of the bill’s 164 sponsors.

The EPA also awarded brownfields grants to several other local communities today, including Delaware County, Luzerne and Lackawanna County and Mifflin County.  Call the above contact for more information on these and other brownfields grants.


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