Brownfields center job training and development pilot program launched
through $100,000 award from US Environmental Protection Agency

PITTSBURGH, PA (August 14, 2000) – The new Brownfields Center pilot program, based at Pittsburgh’s Carnegie-Mellon University (CMU), has received $100,000 in funding from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to provide job training, development and placement assistance for 50 low-income residents of two environmentally distressed communities: the Pittsburgh/Allegheny County Enterprise Zone and the Central City Borough.

A collaborative effort of CMU and the University of Pittsburgh, The Brownfields Center is one of only 16 Brownfield Job Training and Development Demonstration Pilot Programs nationwide, and four statewide, to receive an EPA award this year. (The EPA term "brownfields" refers to "abandoned, idled or under-used industrial and commercial facilities where expansion or redevelopment is complicated by real or perceived environmental contamination.)

The two-year pilot program is being developed and implemented by CMU in cooperation with the City of Pittsburgh.* CMU training efforts are supported by the University of Pittsburgh, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the Pennsylvania State Cooperative Extension Service and the Allegheny County Conservation Districts. The initiative has also been endorsed by the Three Rivers Workforce Investment Board (TRWIB), a high-profile group of community, business and government leaders whose strategic oversight and direction have helped to initiate local career-development programs such as Pittsburgh/Allegheny County CareerLink.

Plans call for The Brownfields Center to recruit 50 job seekers from two localities where industrial expansion and re-development have contributed to environmental deterioration:

Enterprise Zone – The Enterprise Zone in the City of Pittsburgh and Allegheny County contains more than 1,500 acres of brownfields. Many of these sites have been cleared of buildings, but remediation was never completed. Neighborhoods have experienced poverty rates as high as 41 percent and family incomes have ranged from 18 to 42 percent below countywide averages (Source: EPA).

Central City Borough – Central City Borough has a nine-mile-long brownfield pocket with dozens of acres of abandoned plants and acid mine drainage sites, impacting hundreds of miles of streams in the area. Some 72 percent of families with children live below the poverty level (Source: EPA).

"The need for our new EPA brownfield pilot program is strong and growing. The potential to improve the environment and economic well being of our communities and residents is very real and far-reaching," said Deborah A. Lange, P.E., executive director, The Brownfields Center. "A survey performed by the Southwestern Pennsylvania Industrial Resource Center shows that local environmental companies will hire approximately 1,200 technicians in the next five years and 2,300 in the next 10 years. In line with this projection, we plan to conduct outreach efforts and recruit 50 low-income residents from targeted, environmentally and economically distressed communities. We are now in the planning stages, and expect to begin recruitment efforts by the end of October with training to begin November."

The pilot training program will include courses in:

- Areas of environmental impacts of brownfields and abandoned mine lands
- Hazardous Waste Operations and Emerging Response (HAZWOPER)
- Manufactured soils and structural blocks from river dredge material
- Constructed wetlands for acid mine drainage treatment
- Inventory and assessment of acid mine drainage brownfields
- Alternative enhancement and vegetation approaches for affected soils.

"Our training will feature courses that include the use of innovative assessment and cleanup technologies," Lange said. "But that’s not all. We are also committed to achieving a 60-percent placement rate for participants, as well as supporting the career placement of graduates for one year after the training is completed."

The Brownfields Center based at CMU is part of the EPA’s national Brownfields Economic Redevelopment Initiative to "empower communities and other stakeholders in economic development to work together in a timely manner to prevent, assess, safely clean up, and sustainably reuse brownfields." It is one of four Pennsylvania brownfield projects of its kind now underway in Bucks County, Greater Philadelphia, Philadelphia, and Pittsburgh respectively.

"Launch of The Brownfields Center at CMU represents a major achievement and opportunity for our region. The Center’s mission and activities apply federal funding to local services. They also pair the research, development and educational resources of our universities with the fundamental needs of our communities," said David J. Malone, Chairperson, Three Rivers Workforce Investment Board. "As a local leadership organization, we are pleased to endorse and promote The Brown-fields Center – an initiative that will clearly build and revitalize our neighborhoods by serving as a catalyst for employment and economic development."

With headquarters in Downtown Pittsburgh, the Three Rivers Workforce Investment Board (TRWIB) is composed of business, government and community leaders who provide strategic oversight and financial stewardship for various employment and economic development initiatives. The TRWIB is the parent organization and chartering agency for Pittsburgh/Allegheny County CareerLink.

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