Building on the success of reclaiming once-contaminated local sites for job-producing development, the Clinton-Gore Administration announced its Brownfields Showcase Communities initiative will be expanded to include 10 additional cities.
The Showcase Communities are the centerpiece of the Administration's Brownfields National Partnership and are eligible to receive Administration-wide assistance and coordinated technical support for environmental cleanup and economic revitalization.
The Showcase Communities serve as models for future cooperative efforts in cleaning up and revitalizing brownfields, creating jobs and stimulating local economies.
For example, Dallas, Texas is a Showcase Community that is successful. In just over two years, the Dallas Brownfields Program leveraged more than $109 million in private investment and $1.9 million in federal funds to facilitate brownfields redevelopment with support from EPA, the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and the Economic Development Administration (EDA). The program helped reclaim more than 1,200 acres of brownfields and anticipates the creation of more than 1,700 jobs.
In terms of funding, EPA more than doubled its total expenditures to address brownfields between 1997 and 1998 to more than $126 million. The General Services Administration obligated $1 million to fund environmental assessment on federal properties. Other funding support also came from HUD, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and EDA.
The Brownfields National Partnership Action Agenda Accomplishment Report said the Partnership represents a new national model for government reinvention and for public-private partnerships.
"The accomplishments of the Partnership illustrate that coordinating resources and expertise of federal agencies and non-governmental organizations with local and state efforts can expedite the cleanup of more brownfields and spur more sustainable economic reuse," the report said.
