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U.S. EPA SELECTS NACO FIRE DISTRICT FOR $200,000 BROWNFIELDS GRANT

Release Date: 6/21/1999
Contact Information: Lois Grunwald, U.S. EPA, (415) 744-1588

     260 acre site at U.S./Mexico border is one of  57 chosen nationwide for cleanup assessments  

    SAN FRANCISCO -- For fifty years, the town of Naco was known as a major stop in the cattle shipping business. Cattle drivers from Mexico stopped in this small U.S. border town to treat the cows with pesticides before sending them across the border to the states.

     Later, wastewater overflows from a treatment plant in the Sonora, Mexico town of Naco spilled over to the U.S. side, polluting a large area of the U.S. town of Naco. Soon, however, this area will see new life.

     The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency today selected the Naco Fire District to participate in a brownfields pilot redevelopment project at the 260-acre site.
       
      "Cleaning up the Naco site will bring new energy to this long-abandoned border area," said Felicia Marcus, EPA's regional administrator. "We are proud to play a part in the revitalization of the site and help this community."

      The Naco Fire District will receive a $200,000 grant over a two-year period which will be used to facilitate cleanup of the abandoned site, which had been a former major agribusiness loading and transhipping area. The site was periodically flooded by failure of an antiquated and overloaded waste treatment and sewage system. Naco-Mexico is nearing completion of a modern industrial treatment facility that will eliminate the threat of flooding and continued pollution of the site. With the EPA funds, the district will work with community members, Cochise County, and other local groups to assess environmental contamination at the site and develop cleanup plans. Initial plans for the site include retail shops, restaurants, a shopping center and light industrial facilities.

     In addition to brownfields grants, there is another potential avenue for communities to restore their brownfields sites -- Better America Bonds.

     "These bonds, if approved by Congress, will help our states and communities finish the job of brownfields cleanup," said Felicia Marcus, EPA's regional administrator. "They can give our communities the tools they need to preserve open space, reuse abandoned lands, and improve livability."
                             
     The bonds, proposed by the Clinton Administration in its livability agenda, would provide cities access to zero interest loans to help them redevelop brownfields sites. With Better America Bonds, state and local governments will be able to issue nearly $10 billion in bonds to clean up brownfields, preserve open space and protect water quality. They can wait 15 years before paying back the principal. Investors who buy the bonds receive tax credits equal to the interest they would have received on the bonds -- a total of $700 million.

     Bonding authority would be distributed directly to the communities through a competitive process, just like the brownfields program.

     The Naco Fire District was one of 57 cities, districts and municipalities selected nationwide today to participate in brownfields projects. Brownfields are former industrial and commercial sites that are contaminated or perceived to be contaminated. In Region 9, EPA currently has existing brownfields pilot projects in Pomona, San Diego, Sacramento, Stockton, Emeryville, Richmond, San Francisco, Oakland, Santa Barbara, East Palo Alto, and Los Angeles in California; Navajo Nation in New Mexico; and Tucson and Phoenix in Arizona. With the 57 new projects, there are now over 300 brownfields pilot projects nationwide.

     The brownfields initiative was launched to empower states, local governments, and other stakeholders in economic redevelopment to work together to assess, clean up, and sustainably reuse these brownfields properties. The initiative also addresses the concerns of prospective developers and lenders concerned about inheriting cleanup liability for brownfields property.

     Information on the new brownfields pilot grant awards can be obtained from the EPA's brownfields home page on the Internet at: www.epa.gov/brownfields. Information on the Better
America Bonds can be obtained at: www.epa.gov/bonds.