Site of former Quebecor plant is focus of brownfield grant requests
City hopes to know in 2010 if funds approved
Brookfield's recent efforts to obtain grant money for assessing and cleaning up contaminated properties could play a key role in redeveloping areas of the city, including the 25 acres at the former Quebecor World printing facility on Bluemound Road.
The site has been for sale since the plant closed in 2006, and the city has learned it is being considered as a potential site for the new headquarters for Astronautics Corp. of America, which makes navigation systems and other aircraft parts.
It lies within the 124th Street/Bluemound Road area that a 2006 neighborhood plan pegged as one of 10 citywide likely to see development or redevelopment in the near future.
Dan Ertl, the city's director of community development, said the city and potential developers who have looked at the property want to see how much contamination there might be on the Quebecor property and what would be needed to clean it up.
If the city is successful in its application for state and federal brownfield grants, funds given for assessment purposes would pay to make those determinations. Funds for cleanup could be used there, but also at other properties in the area.
State has 10,000 brownfields
State and federal guidelines identify brownfields as abandoned or underused commercial or residential properties where expansion or redevelopment is blocked by real or perceived contamination.
There are about 8,000 to 10,000 brownfield sites across the state, and they can be anything from abandoned factories to shut-down gas stations, said Andrew Savagian, outreach specialist for the Department of Natural Resources' Remediation and Redevelopment Program.
Contamination can come in a number of forms, from dry-cleaning chemicals to petroleum leaks from underground gas tanks, and that contamination can affect the soil and groundwater, Savagian said.
The state's programs - including a site assessment grant of up to $100,000 - were established in the late 1990s and have been successful in funding clean ups at blighted areas across Wisconsin, Savagian said.
The program receives about $3.5 million in funding per biennium but gets about $7 million in requests from municipalities during the same span.
Concentrated in one area
A 2008 study identified 114 other brownfield sites in three other areas of the city - the Brookfield Square/Executive Drive area, the Northwest Gateway area near Capitol Drive and Springdale Road and the 124th Street/Capitol Drive neighborhood.
However, the report said the contamination in these areas did not reach the level where intervention was necessary, Ertl said.
That makes the 124th Street/Bluemound area the most likely target for any grant money.
The city likely will hear whether it has received the brownfield grants by early next year, Ertl said. If it does, it would need permission from Quebecor to access the site.
BY THE NUMBERS
199
Wisconsin communities that have received brownfield site assessment grants since 1999
$15 million
total value of grants issued since 1999
777
site assessments and investigations completed since 1999
1,562
acres of brownfield properties that have been cleaned up since 1999, including the removal of nearly 500 storage tanks and the demolition of 590 structures and buildings
- Source: Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources
FYI
Brownfield grants the city of Brookfield has applied for:
Brownfield Assessment Grant (Environmental Protection Agency): $400,000. Will help fund assessment of potential contamination at former Quebecor printing facility at 12821 W. Bluemound Road. No local match required.
Brownfield Revolving Loan Fund Grant (EPA): $1,000,000. Will be used for environmental cleanup on brownfield sites throughout the city, potentially including the Quebecor site. Program requires a 20 percent local match, which would include city staff time, fund contributions from Community Development Authority or Economic Development Fund or direct contributions from property owners/developers.
Brownfield Site Assessment Grant (Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources): $100,000. Will assist in site assessment at Quebecor property. Requires 20 percent local match, which would come from same sources as EPA Revolving Loan Fund grant.
AT A GLANCE
Major state legislative initiatives regarding brownfield properties:
1994 Land Recycling Law: Clarified liability of lenders, municipalities and purchasers of properties in investigation and cleanup of contaminated properties.
1997-99 biennial budget: Expanded initiatives in the Land Recycling Law, including the creation of Wisconsin's Brownfields Grant Program. State created Brownfields Study Group - a team of state and local officials, private parties, consultants, environmental attorneys and academics - which recommends expansion and enhancement of state's liability initiatives for brownfields. State Brownfields Initiative further expanded in the 1999-2001 budget and the 2001-03 budget.
We encourage your comments but will strive to remove discussion that contains personal attacks, racial slurs, profanity or other inappropriate material as outlined in our guidelines. We post-moderate comments on most content, but may choose to pre-moderate some comments so please be patient if you don't see yours appear right way. We also ask for your help by reporting comments you think are inappropriate.
Please login or register to post a comment.