About
Through the ICMA TAB program for EPA Region 4, you can access free technical assistance to support your brownfield redevelopment efforts. These services are made available through an award from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
Definition: The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) defines a brownfield as “…a property, the expansion, redevelopment, or reuse of which may be complicated by the presence or potential presence of a hazardous substance, pollutant, or contaminant.”
What are Brownfields?
In everyday terms, brownfields are property that might be contaminated, and that makes reusing the site difficult. Examples include the abandoned gas station on the corner, vacant building on Main St., or the large fenced off industrial site where people in your community used to work. Brownfields are in all our communities, large, small, urban, and rural.
Every site has a history. Some site histories include operations that might have released contamination, pollutants, or toxins into the soil, groundwater, and surface water. Buildings might have also been impacted by releases or otherwise contain building materials known to be hazardous.
Beacon Park - Detroit, Michigan
Vacant industrial site - Georgetown, South Carolina
Impacts
Public Health – Environment – Economy – Environmental Justice
These releases create negative public and environmental health conditions that need to be addressed before a brownfield can be redeveloped. Brownfields also do not host employment, housing, goods, services, amenities, or other activity that benefits the surrounding community. This has significant economic implications greatly reducing tax revenue, employment, and business opportunities.
These impacts are not felt evenly across all communities. Lower income communities and communities of color endure a greatly disproportionate share of brownfields and their negative impacts. As such, achieving Environmental Justice is a central goal in brownfield redevelopment.
What is TAB?
The Technical Assistance to Brownfields Program (TAB) provides free services to communities and stakeholders to help them tackle their brownfield challenges. TAB programs assist in addressing brownfields sites and serve as an independent resources for communities to increase their understanding and capacity for brownfield assessment, cleanup, revitalization, and reuse.
TAB programs are funded by the United States Environmental Protection Agency and are authorized by the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act (CERCLA) Brownfields Amendments, the same act that authorizes Superfund programs.
Current, there are six different TAB providers between EPA’s 10 geographic regions. ICMA is the TAB provider for Region 4 (Southeast). If you are interested in TAB assistance and are located in a different region, please contact the appropriate provider below:
