County Receives $400,000 in Grant Funds

By Kristen H. Long
Friday, August 1, 2008

Summary:

Communities throughout Southeastern North Carolina are actively seeking citizen involvement in the implementation of economic development grant projects. In March 2006, the Town of Pembroke secured a $200,000 Brownfields Assessment grant from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to assess the level of petroleum contamination at multiple sites throughout the Town. Robeson County received $400,000 in March 2007 to assess both petroleum and hazardous substance contamination throughout the County, and most recently, Hoke County received $400,000 to assess petroleum and hazardous substance contamination at properties across the County. Other cities and towns throughout the U.S. have used this program to turn dilapidated buildings into new parks, businesses, and residences. You can help by letting us know of any abandoned or underutilized sites in your area. Please contact:

Kristen H. Long, Brownfields Project Manager, Concurrent Technologies Corporation at (800) 846-6001, Dr. Freda Porter, President, Porter Scientific, Inc. at (910) 521-0549 or fporter@porterscientific.com, or Ken Windley, County Manager, Robeson County at (910)671-3022 or ken.windley@co.robeson.nc.us

Recommended sites may be thought or known to be contaminated with hazardous substances, such as dry cleaners, former manufacturers or petroleum related, such as leaking underground storage tanks from former gas and/or service stations. Please feel free to submit information on any site that impacts your neighborhood.

Over the project lifespan, the Town of Pembroke, Robeson County, and Hoke County will be hosting a series of meetings and workshops where you can communicate which sites you feel should be assessed and/or redeveloped first, as well as learn the basics of the brownfields project. The first workshop, the Southeastern North Carolina Brownfields and Land Revitalization Workshop is scheduled to occur on August 7, 2008, at 7:00 p.m. at the University of North Carolina Pembroke Regional Center. By assessing potentially contaminated properties throughout the region, the Town and Counties are quantifying the risks involved in redeveloping the properties. Through this process, property owners and developers will be encouraged to clean up these sites and put them back into productive use. The Town and Counties request your assistance in identifying and prioritizing brownfield sites. Once an inventory of potential sites has been completed, the Town and Counties will assess contamination and create cleanup and redevelopment plans at high-priority sites, as funding allows.

More information about the grant will be available on the project web sites www.ctcbrownfields.com/pembroke and www.ctcbrownfields.com/robeson (these will be formally introduced at the August 7th meeting) or by visiting the EPA grant program site at: www.epa.gov/brownfields.