Volume 1 Number 8 | pdb2b.com

The city of Hartsville held its second brownfield community outreach meeting April 21, at The Edition venue, 221 N. 5th St.

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 on the US Environmental Protection Agency’s brownfield community grants. The meeting was open to the public, and the 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:

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Chesterfield County Council voted to pass an emergency ordinance establishing a temporary moratorium on data centers. At its April 6 meeting, the Council voted 7-0 to pass both a first reading of an ordinance and the emergency ordinance. The moratorium would run about a year and a half, out to Jan. 1, 2028.

The ordinance was proposed by Donald Kirkley, Chesterfield County Council member for District 5, and Derrick Outen, the County building codes director.

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