Some years back there was a television show set in Seattle about the logging industry, with a recurring line about the bluest skies a person had ever seen and the hills that were the greenest green. And on the show, they were. These days that’s not always true, and not just in Seattle.

The term “brownfields” describes sites of previously developed land, which were or are occupied by a permanent structure. In contrast, “greenfields” refers to any land that hasn’t been previously developed. The terms bring pictures instantly to mind. According to government estimates, there are as many as 425,000 brownfields throughout the U.S., but it is difficult to estimate with any accuracy. There may be as many as 5 million acres of abandoned industrial property in urban areas.

Brownfields can also refer to sites of former industrial buildings and abandoned mines. This may mean environmental contamination, such as old gas stations with their underground tanks, dry cleaning businesses and the chemicals used there, smelters and other places no longer in use. Dealing with them is more complex than tearing down old buildings since the contaminants might have leaked into soil and groundwater. Properly dealing with brownfields can be time-consuming and costly, but such efforts remain vital to the environment.

Thanks to the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, formerly known as the INVEST in America Act, funds are being made available to deal with just exactly this kind of environmental issue. In December, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency selected Tacoma, Wash., to receive $500,000 in grants to be used for the city’s environmental job training program, and it will have a double benefit: not just cleaning up problem areas and creating new, healthy areas for better use, but adding employment opportunities to every such selected city.

Rob Healy, senior project manager and remediator in the Port of Tacoma’s Environmental Department, said the city was awarded the Brownfields Assessment Grant from the EPA last year.

“We are still in the very early stages of the project. We’ve had a kickoff meeting with the EPA, and our Environmental Engineering consultant – Anchor QEA – is currently working on a public involvement plan, which is the first project deliverable. Once that is drafted, we form a Brownfields Advisory Committee.

“Anchor has also started inventorying all the brownfield sites in the Tacoma Tideflats,” Healy said. The Tideflats is the industrial area of Tacoma, where the port is located. The Tideflats is about 5,000 acres, of which the Port of Tacoma owns about 2,500 acres.

“Anchor is supporting us in the work for this project,” Healy explained. “We have no plans to hire additional staff. The port put together a good application for this grant, showing there are redevelopment needs in certain areas of the Tideflats, and that the port area is uniquely qualified to lead this effort.”

 The port’s grant is for assessment, and the city’s grant is for training, clarified Carol Bua, communications director for the Port of Tacoma. It will support the city’s successful Local Employment and Apprenticeship Program.

Deborah Trevorrow wears several hats for the city of Tacoma: contract and program auditor, workforce programs, community and economic development. According to her, “LEAP is a city program not related to the grant. The staff applied for and received it. It’s for economically depressed areas, and a certain percent, I believe it’s 15%, of the work is performed by residents of that area. The training is focused on brownfield-impacted neighborhoods – the Port of Tacoma, Tacoma Renewal Community, Hilltop Neighborhood and Salishan/East Tacoma.

“Our staff has worked with partners in the area,” Trevorrow said. We manage the applications and do the follow-up, while someone from our staff is the grant manager.

This year, we have two partners. Our job placement partner is Goodwill. It’s more than just a store; it’s also the Milgard Work Opportunity Center, a hub that connects people with the services and programs that will serve them best. And our training partner is Clover Park Technical College. They have all the classes set and they’re flexible with the idea of ‘We have to provide this many classes in this amount of time,’ and so on.’”

The classes cycle through some big numbers.

“There’s so many people per class. Our estimate to recruit those who will come in and be tested and interviewed, that’s about 280. After that about 140 will be enrolled and approximately 105 will graduate. Out of those graduates, 79, on average, will be placed in positions. We also have a category for those who were not placed, but we help them with further education and training so they will have better opportunities later. All of these come from areas of low employment and low income, and many of them can apply for aid and receive it for education and training.”

The work they are training for is not just temporary and contractual, Trevorrow said. Long-term environmental careers will be the end result.

The student’s education and training include the following:

• HAZWOPER 40: Prepares graduates to handle solid and liquid contaminants from polluted sites safely and properly dispose of the contaminated material, thereby creating a clean site for new residential, commercial, or recreational use and revitalizing the local community.
• OSHA 10 Construction Safety training: Provides education in safe work practices and use of proper protective gear while engaged in cleanup activities, ensuring the health of the practitioner and safeguarding the area residents – some of whom may be employed on the cleanup project.
• First Aid/CPR/AED training: Prepares graduates to deliver immediate and timely care in emergency situations encountered at work sites until professional aid units arrive.
• Forklift Operator Certification: This two-year, portable certification provides the most immediate employment entry.
• Asbestos Worker Certification: Highly valued by employers doing cleanup work at contaminated sites; it is a major credential leading to gainful employment after graduation.
• Lead Renovation, Remediation, and Repair (Lead RRP) Certification: A valuable certification that meets both EPA and state requirements for contractors and maintenance personnel who are involved in any activity that has the potential to disturb lead-based paint.
• Flagger Certification: Approved training by the Washington State Department of Labor and Industries for flagging and traffic control with hands-on practice.

And after all of this and more, Trevarrow said, “We work with them on job placement. We track them for a year and send them any opportunities that might not have been available when they graduated. We had one graduate who went through all of it, came to the city and got accepted into a pre-apprenticeship program we had at that time for wastewater treatment. He got into a position, eventually, with Utility Tacoma Water, and he attributed all that to us.”

Trevorrow shared key points in Tacoma’s successful grant application.

“According to the Washington State Department of Ecology July 2022 Hazardous Sites List, there are 1,024 hazardous sites in Pierce County, with 908 of them in the city of Tacoma, either awaiting cleanup or in the process of cleanup. Even though Tacoma has only 25% of the population of Pierce County, it has 89% of the hazardous sites.”

The application further stated, “The American Lung Association ‘State of the Air’ 2019 report found that the Seattle-Tacoma region’s air quality worsened from 15th most polluted in the country last year to ninth for short-term particle pollution. As in our previous programs, recruitment for the brownfields job training developed through grant funds will be focused on the areas of Tacoma to have the higher proportion of hazardous sites, as identified by the Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department and other governmental agencies.”

Trevorrow noted that the EPA releases applications yearly that are due in August.

“We found out in December we were one of 29 entities granted. Then there is a second round, where you put complete more extensive forms that are signed by the city manager. You lay out your work plan and state clearly everything you would possibly do with the money.” It is clear these grants were sorely needed and will be well put to use. Trevorrow said there are new agencies and sites online to tell interested municipalities about grants that are coming up, plus provide “the ‘when’ and ‘where’ you can apply to the mailing list for your state.”

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