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Sector–Based
Initiatives
Portfields
Mine-Scarred Lands
Railfields
USTfields Initiative-Petroleum Brownfields
RCRA Brownfields Prevention Initiative
Portfields
Portfields is a federal interagency partnership led by
the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to address brownfields
in and around port communities, with an emphasis on the development
of environmentally sound port facilities. Portfields, through increased
federal, state, and local coordination, assists the Pilot Ports
in leveraging resources to revitalize waterfront areas, improving
marine transportation, and protecting and restoring critical habitat.
The Ports of Bellingham, Washington; New Bedford, Massachusetts;
and Tampa, Florida are designated as Portfields Pilot Ports.
The scope of Portfields activities will involve restoring all
environmentally sound uses of port and harbor areas that benefit
the economic, ecological, social, and security conditions of the
port community. To this end, the Portfields partners will continue
to work in conjunction with the three Pilot Ports to leverage
both public and private investment to meet the port communities'
priority needs. Learning from both the successes and hurdles encountered
over the next year, the Portfields partners will actively transfer
best practices and lessons learned to other port communities.
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A Coordinated Approach to Revitalization Ports
[PDF (1.8MB) 16 Pages]
Publication Number: EPA 560-R-04-001
August 2004
This report details Portfields, a federal interagency partnership addressing
brownfields in and around port communities, with an emphasis on
the development of environmentally-sound port facilities. Portfields,
through increased federal, state, and local coordination, assists
the three Portfields Demonstration Pilot Ports—Bellingham, Washington,
New Bedford, Massachusetts, and Tampa, Florida—in leveraging resources
to revitalize waterfront areas, improve marine transportation, and
protect and restore critical habitat.
- Success Stories: Portfields
- The Wave of the Future
- National
Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)
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Mine-Scarred Lands
Mine-scarred lands (MSLs) are defined as lands, associated
waters, and surrounding watersheds where extraction, beneficiation,
or processing of ores and minerals (including coal) has occurred.
These MSL properties are located on public and private land and
involve complex environmental, social, and environmental issues.
An interagency approach comprising nine federal agencies has been
established to cleaning up and reuse these sites. These agencies
makeup the MSL Working Group, which hasidentified six Demonstration
Projects across the U.S. where the opportunity exists to collaborate
with local stakeholders by providing technical assistance to clean
up and reuse mine-scarred lands.
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Railfields
Following the rapid growth of the rail industry in the
second half of the nineteenth century was its significant decline
in the twentieth century. Left behind was an extensive legacy of
potentially contaminated and abandoned rail lands. The sheer extent
and size of these potentially contaminated and abandoned properties
inspired the establishment of EPA's Railfields Initiative. Through
the initiative, EPA seeks to work together with statekholders, including
other government agencies, rail companies and associations, and
real estate professionals, to clean up and redevelop rail properties.
Rail properties are located in rural and urban areas of every state
in the nation. Prior to the advent of the Railfields Initiative,
EPA's Brownfields Program dealt with rail properties through its
Brownfields Pilots. Properties affiliated with 234 Brownfields Pilots,
which comprise approximately one-third of the pre-Brownfields law
Pilots, have rail-related components. The EPA Railfields Initiative
is still in its infancy, and is being modeled after existing sector-based
initiatives. Under this new initiative, EPA hopes to further the
cleanup and redevelopment of rail properties.
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USTfields - Petroleum Brownfields
In 2000, the Office of Underground Storage Tanks (OUST)
created the USTfields Initiative to encourage the reuse of abandoned
properties contaminated with petroleum from underground storage
tanks (USTs). "USTfields" are abandoned or underused industrial
and commercial properties where revitalization is complicated by
real or perceived environmental contamination from USTs. Fifty USTfields
Pilots were awarded up to $100,000 each from the Leaking Underground
Storage Tank (LUST) Trust Fund to assess, clean up, and ready for
reuse high-priority petroleum-impacted sites.
In 2002, the Small Business Liability Relief and Brownfields
Revitalization Act ("Brownfields Law") provided a provision
allocating 25 percent of funding each year to assess, clean up,
and ready for reuse petroleum brownfields sites. This law expanded
the original EPA Brownfields Program by including relatively low-risk
petroleum sites as eligible sites for Brownfields assessment and
cleanup grant funding.
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Resource Conservation Recovery Act (RCRA) Brownfields Prevention
The Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) gives
EPA the authority to control the generation, transportation, treatment,
storage, and disposal of hazardous waste. RCRA also set forth a
framework for the management of non-hazardous wastes. The 1986 amendments
to RCRA enabled EPA to address environmental problems that could
result from USTs that store petroleum and other hazardous substances.
RCRA focuses only on active and future facilities and does not address
abandoned or historical sites.
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