Office Location
451 South State Street
Room 418
Salt Lake City, UT 84111
Business Hours
Mon - Fri 8 am to 5 pm
Phone
801.535.7240
801.535.7245 FAX
Brownfields Resource Center:
Questions and Answers about Brownfields
What is a "Brownfield"?
A brownfield is a site, or a portion of a piece of property, that has actual or perceived contamination and an active potential for redevelopment or reuse. Many areas across the country that were once used for industrial and commercial purposes have been abandoned. Some are contaminated. Because lenders, investors, and developers fear that involvement with these sites may make them liable for cleaning up contamination they did not create, they are more attracted to developing sites in pristine areas, called "greenfields." The result can be blighted areas with abandoned industrial facilities that create safety and health risks for residents, drive up unemployment, and foster a sense of hopelessness. These areas are called "brownfields." The Gateway is considered a Brownfields area because many of these conditions exist in the District.
EPA has developed a Brownfields Economic Redevelopment Initiative which is designed to empower States, communities, and other stakeholders in economic redevelopment to work together in a timely manner to prevent, assess, safely clean up, and sustainably reuse brownfields. EPA’s Brownfields Initiative strategies include funding pilot programs and other research efforts, clarifying liability issues, entering into partnerships, conducting outreach activities, developing job training programs, and addressing environmental justice concerns.
Brownfields Assessment Demonstration Pilots — As of Spring 1999, EPA has awarded 227 Brownfields Assessment Demonstration Pilot grants that are funded up to $200,000 each for a two-year period. The pilots are exploring innovative approaches to solving brownfields problems and providing a growing knowledge base to help EPA, States and communities to promote a unified approach to site assessment, environmental cleanup and redevelopment. Salt Lake City received an initial pilot grant in 1996 and a supplemental grant in 1998. The funding is being used to do environmental sampling of properties in the Gateway District where property owners offer access; to develop general environmental cleanup costs for various types of contaminated sites; to assist one property owner in going through the state’s Voluntary Cleanup Program; and to examine real or perceived liability issues associated with Brownfields cleanups.
Why is the Gateway District called a Brownfields "Showcase Community?
A partnership of Federal agencies with interests in brownfields redevelopment has been formed to offer technical, financial, and other assistance to selected communities. These communities, called Brownfields Showcase Communities, will serve as models demonstrating the benefits of collaborative activity on brownfields. The Federal partners designated 16 Brownfields Showcase Communities out of over 230 interested communities distributed across the country, varying by size, resources, and community character. The Salt Lake City Gateway was one of the communities selected and is already benefiting from the federal agency funding and technical assistance offered by the partnership. For example, the Department of Housing and Urban Development provided $500,000 to Salt Lake City to be used for improving the infrastructure (such as streets and sidewalks) in the Gateway District. The Department of Transportation will provide $40 million to assist in the construction of the Intermodal Center at 600 West and 200 South and another $1 million to improve Gateway streets. And, the Environmental Protection Agency, in addition to funding the Brownfield Pilot Project, has provided a full time staff person to the City for two years to work on Brownfields Redevelopment. Other federal agencies, such as the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the National Park Service and the U.S. Department of Energy, are also providing technical assistance and funding on specific projects.
My property is located in the Gateway District - does that mean my property is assumed to be contaminated?
No. Current or historic uses of a property which involved the use of hazardous materials or chemicals may indicate a possibility that the land is contaminated, but environmental sampling is the only way to find out whether this is the case.
Do I have to do an environmental investigation or cleanup because my property is located in the Gateway District?
Not necessarily. If your property is already required to do a cleanup under another environmental law, being in a Brownfields neighborhood will not change these requirements. If you are not subject to such legal requirements you are not required to investigate or clean up your property. However, if you are applying for financing to do construction or reconstruction, or if you are trying to buy or sell property in any area of the City (not just Gateway) your lender or purchaser may require at least a Phase1 environmental assessment to determine whether your property has the potential to be contaminated. If the Phase 1 assessment indicates that contamination is possible, you may be asked to conduct sampling as part of a Phase 2 assessment to see whether contamination is present above acceptable risk-based concentrations. In order to complete the transaction, it may first be necessary for you to arrange for some cleanup, if contamination is found.
How does the State's Voluntary Cleanup Program apply?
The Utah Voluntary Cleanup Program (VCP) is designed to allow property owners to enter into an agreement with the state to assess and clean up their property, if necessary, on a voluntary basis and receive a release from liability by the Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) when the work is completed to the state’s satisfaction. Any site is eligible, except a regulated hazardous waste treatment, storage or disposal facility, a site on the EPA Superfund National Priority List and sites with existing or pending enforcement actions. The VCP agreement requires the applicant to provide all work plans and reports to DEQ for review and provides for the property owner to reimburse DEQ for its oversight costs. For information about this program, contact Brent Everett of DEQ at 536-4171.
Does it cost more to do an environmental cleanup or development if my property is located in a Brownfield Area? Is a greater extent of cleanup required?
No. The extent of cleanup required will depend on the type of future uses planned for the property. A cleanup for future residential use will generally cost more than a cleanup for future industrial use because of the type and duration of exposure to contamination which may occur. However, the cost of cleanup may be reduced because there are financial incentives to assist with site cleanup which are available only to owners of property in a Brownfields area.
What incentives are available to help property owners to do cleanup in a Brownfield area such as Gateway?
Brownfields Tax Incentive — On August 5, 1997, President Clinton signed the Taxpayer Relief Act (PL 105-34/HR 2014), which included a new tax incentive to spur the cleanup and redevelopment of brownfields in distressed urban and rural areas. Under the tax incentive, environmental cleanup costs for properties in targeted areas are fully deductible in the year in which they are incurred, rather than having to be capitalized. The tax incentive will help bring thousands of abandoned and under-used industrial sites back into productive use, providing the foundation for neighborhood revitalization, job creation, and the restoration of hope in our nation’s cities and distressed rural areas. EPA is providing technical assistance to the States as they implement the new tax incentive.
Clean Water Act State Revolving Fund - Clean Water Act State Revolving Funds (CWSRFs) operate like banks. The assets are used to make low or no-interest loans for important water quality projects. Funds are repaid to the CWSRFs over terms as long as 20 years. Repaid funds are then recycled to fund other water quality projects. Brownfields projects to correct or prevent water quality problems may be eligible for CWSRF funding which includes: 1) Abatement of polluted runoff; 2) Control of storm water runoff, 3) Remediation of Petroleum Contamination.
RDA Environmental Cleanup Loan Program - The Redevelopment Agency of Salt Lake City (RDA) has established an Environmental Cleanup Revolving Loan Program that is intended to facilitate the redevelopment of west downtown by assisting in the cleanup or remediation of environmentally contaminated properties. Properties located within either the Guadalupe or Gateway Districts are eligible for assistance under this program if the owner’s plans for the property contribute to the City’s goals for the area and are in conformance with the neighborhood’s master plan. Cleanup and remediation activities are eligible for the loan, as are site monitoring and cleanup evaluations; assessments will also be considered. All cleanup and remediation activities must occur in concordance with cleanup agreements arranged between the applicant and the Utah Department of Environmental Quality. For additional information on this loan program, please contact the Redevelopment Agency at 535-7240.
Community Reinvestment Act - The federal Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) requires that certain banks and other lenders provide a specified level of lending to disadvantaged communities. CRA regulations allow lenders subject to the CRA to claim CRA credit for loans made to help cleanup and redevelop contaminated properties. For additional information on whether your lender is subject to these requirements, please contact them directly.
Do owners of contaminated property need to worry about Federal liability?
EPA recognizes that private parties may believe federal environmental laws and policies have created roadblocks to reusing property. However, the federal environmental liability risks associated with brownfields are not nearly so large as one might imagine.
The federal environmental law that most affects the cleanup and reuse of brownfields is the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act, or CERCLA (often referred to as "Superfund"). This law requires EPA to focus its attention on cleaning up the nation’s most toxic waste sites in order to protect human health and the environment. Under CERCLA, the current owner of a contaminated facility may be held liable and responsible for the cost of cleanup.
Although potential liability is a valid and serious concern for landowners, it is important to keep this concern within context. For example, the General Accounting Office estimates the number of potential brownfields at 450,000 sites nationwide. Approximately 10% of brownfields are considered for the National Priorities List with less than 1% actually placed on the list. Therefore, at least 99% of potential brownfields across the country will not require federal Superfund action. Although the existence and applicability of federal environmental laws and regulations could have an impact on development, the reality is that federal action has been taken at a relatively small number of these parcels. (The preceding response was taken from EPA’s "Handbook of Tools for Managing Federal Superfund Liability Risks at Brownfields and Other Sites, November 1998).
EPA Guidance on Liability Issues — EPA has issued several guidance documents to address the liability concerns of lending institutions, municipalities, property owners, developers, prospective purchasers, and others. For further information on these guidance's and policies, please contact: David Ostrander, EPA Region 8, (303) 312-6931.