Enterprise Story

Palouse receives grant to clean up and renovate land

PALOUSE, Wash. – After the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) completed a Targeted Brownfield Assessment in 2008, the small town of Palouse received its first Integrated Planning Grant from the Washington State Department of Ecology (DOE).

In the spring of 2009, Palouse received $200,000 to hire consultants, create a Brownfields Committee and to do whatever else was needed to begin its project. Palouse is the second city in the state of Washington to receive an Integrated Planning Grant, enabling the town to cleanup and renovate a piece of land and begin its first Brownfields Project.

“We have a history of working very closely with government agencies,” Palouse Mayor Michael Echanove said. “We demonstrate a real desire to begin this cleanup and begin the renovation process on this land, and I think that's part of the reason they picked us.”

According to the DOE’s Web site: “Brownfield sites are abandoned or underused properties where there may be environmental contamination. Redevelopment efforts are often hindered by the liability for the cleanup or the uncertainty of cleanup costs. Brownfield sites that aren’t cleaned up represent lost opportunities for economic development and for other community improvements.”

The piece of land causing concern in Palouse is the former Palouse Producers site. The site consists of an abandoned gas station, service station and agricultural chemical distribution facility. The land is in the center of downtown Palouse, right between Main Street and the Palouse River.

Echanove said the idea of cleaning up the area initially occurred in the 1980s when Petroleum was discovered leaking into the Palouse River. The groundwater and soil at this particular site are still contaminated, creating a potential threat to the environment and citizens of Palouse. Echanove said this is what makes this bit of land a perfect Brownfields Project.

The Brownfields Project has three distinct phases. The first is the Target Brownfield Assessment, where the land in question is evaluated by the EPA and it is decided whether or not the city will get the grant. The second phase is the cleanup, which Palouse is currently in the beginning stages of. Finally, the third stage is the reuse and renovation stage.

Councilman Mike Milano said the land being considered for this project is not owned by the city. It is privately owned and must be bought by the city in order to begin the cleanup process.

“We currently don’t have funding secured for either property acquisition or any site cleanup work at this point,” Milano said. “The goal of the integrated planning process is to define the community’s wishes for the future use of the site.”

He said the recommended site cleanup method could be very different depending on what the community of Palouse decides to do with the land.

Echanove said the cost of acquiring the land and the cost of the cleanup are unknown at this time. However, he said he thinks the cost of the cleanup may be around $285,000. Palouse will apply for an additional grant for this money with the EPA and the DOE. The cleanup methods depend on what the city decides to use the land for, and only when that is decided will the cost become clear. Echanove said he knows for sure he would like to integrate the Palouse River into the city more.

“We really want to bring our river to the forefront of the property so people can have more river access,” he said.

John Means, brownfields grant manager and program planner for the DOE, said in an e-mail that he knows of no other state that has a grant program like this one. He said it is very important for cities that do get this grant to be able to see and create their vision for the property they wish to cleanup and renovate. Echanove said Means flew in to Palouse on Oct. 1 for the committee meeting concerning the Brownfields Project.

A town hall meeting was also held to discuss the project on Sept. 30. Echanove said about 60 people attended and many people had ideas of what they would like to see at the new site. He said he has heard ideas for a parking lot, urban housing, a park and a retail center with urban housing around it. Though none of the citizens of Palouse oppose this project, Echanove said some are wary of the liability and of the fact that this is something new to them.

“We have never been down this road before, it is something new that will create new challenges,” he said.

Palouse plans to reach the cleanup stage of the project by early in 2010. After that is completed, Echanove said the city will have some options concerning how they will get money for the reuse and renovation stage. He said they may apply for public funds, try to sell the property to a private enterprise that wants to build on it or they will apply for Public Development Authority, which allows a public entity to build a structure on the land.

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Sources
Mayor Michael Echanove (in-person interview): 509-335-0512
echanove@wsu.edu

Councilman Mike Milano: councilmanmilano@palousedays.com
509-595-0664

John Means: jmea461@ecy.wa.gov

OUTLINE
I. Lead: What Palouse received, what it means, MONEY!
II. Lead quote: Echanove saying why he thinks the city of Palouse was chosen to receive this grant.
III. What is Brownfields? What makes the land in Palouse a good Brownfields Project?
IV. Mike Milano discusses the city needs to buy the land, how to being intial cleanup
V. More on costs and what the land may be used for
VI. John Means bit of information
VII. Echanove talks about the meetings, what people think and the city’s plans for renovation and reuse