Two representatives from PPM Consultants out of Spanish Fort, AL — Keith Pyron, principal and senior geologist, and Charles Ray, vice president of government initiatives and brownfields — gave an informational presentation about the US Environmental Protection Agency’s brownfield community grants. The meeting was open to the public, and two men also fielded questions from community members.

During the presentation, Ray defined a brownfield site as “real property, the expansion, redevelopment or reuse of which may be complicated by the presence or potential presence of a hazardous substance, pollutant or contaminant.”

Typical potential brownfield sites include industrial plants, former dry cleaners, abandoned gas stations, auto repair shops, machine shops and tank farms. This EPA funding turns contaminated and underutilized sites into economic assets and opens up private investment in communities. Pyron described brownfield grants as “a tool in a city’s toolbox that they can use to help spur more economic development or even redevelopment of older properties.”

Brownfield assessment grants span a four-year period, providing up to $2 million. Upon expiration, parties may file for additional grants if needed. The grants can be applied toward both public and privately owned land. It covers the costs of three phases of environmental site assessments and preparation of a cleanup plan as needed. Actual cleanup requires a separate grant application be filed.

Phase 1 entails information gathering, where assessors examine the historical use of the property, maps and aerial photographs to determine what the property had been used for in the last 50-100 years. Generally, Phase 1 can begin within 30 days of identification, Pyron said in an interview.

Phase 2 involves sampling the land to determine if information gathered in Phase 1 bears out potential problems and actual contamination at the site. If a Phase 2 assessment is recommended, the process can take about six weeks.

Phase 3 determines the scope and scale of the problem: How widespread and how severe the contamination is. This phase takes about two months.

Pyron said there is typically a delay of up to three months between phases because, “we have to submit a plan to EPA about where we're going to sample.”

He said that about half of the time assessments do not uncover any contamination, adding, whether “you have contamination or not, just clearing the perception out of the way and clearing those environmental issues leads a lot of the times to some kind of redevelopment of the building or the property.”

The presentation outlined benefits of brownfield revitalization:

“The whole point of this program is providing an incentive to get properties assessed and redeveloped into some kind of viable business,” Pyron said. “A lot of the times, those viable businesses won’t occur unless you get that stigma removed and get the property free and clear of those issues, and you can do that with this program.

“What we want to try to accomplishment is getting the general public to the point [where they don’t] fear assessing their property, because once you get your property assessed, under this brownfield program, you don’t have to worry about anybody coming after you about cleanup. That’s the advantage of this program.”

Hartsville had applied for brownfield assessment grants in 2024. According to Pyron, that application scored the highest out of any grant application submitted in the EPA’s Region 4. Said region encompasses Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee and six tribal nations, according to the agency’s website. The agency awarded the city of Hartsville a grant of $500,000, of which, some $474,400 in funding is still available.

Since partnering with PPM, the city has held two of these community outreach meetings. They’ve also assembled an advisory committee of realtors and bankers that has held three meetings so far.

The city has completed five Phase 1 environmental site assessments and one quality assurance project plan for Phase 2 assessment. City of Hartsville Controller Chastity Jenkins said in an interview that the one property that has been promoted to Phase 2 is privately owned. “We’re waiting on the property owner to basically give us the go-ahead for the Phase 2.”

The city’s application identified 21 brownfield sites, “including abandoned gas stations, vacant industrial warehouses, two former schools, an abandoned armory warehouse and an old cotton gin, all of which have contaminants of concern, such as volatile organic compounds, semi-volatile organic compounds, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, heavy metals and asbestos.”

Hartsville has designated four brownfield locations as priority sites. Thornwell School, at 300 N. 1st St., encompasses 8 acres and sits in the College Heights census tract, while three are in the Oakdale neighborhood census:

Jenkins said, ideally, she would like to continue holding these meetings at least twice yearly. “We’ve got these five projects, and we are waiting on the public to submit more applications.”